Faith Abused by the Cascione-Preus Gang

Pastor Cascione (Cardinal) Intermediate Member Username: Cardinal Post Number: 441 Registered: 11-2004	Posted on Tuesday, April 05, 2022 - 10:56 am:       NEW LCMS Book “Faith Misused” a Misuse of the Bible by Jack Cascione reclaimnews@earthlink.net “Faith Misused,” another book in a series by Concordia Publishing House, designed to wean laypeople off the plenary inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of the Bible. “Faith Misused: Why Christianity Is Not Just Another religion,” by Rev. Dr. Alvin J. Schmidt, (published by CPH, St. Louis, 2022, 150 pages), has a forward by LCMS President, Matthew Harrison, and is endorsed, among others, by Concordia Seminary Exegetical Professor, Kevin S. Golden and Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary St. Catharines’ President, Paul Winger. Harrison’s endorsement is another reason he should not be re-elected as LCMS President. For the full review email Reclaimnews@earthlink.net
Pastor Cascione (Cardinal) Intermediate Member Username: Cardinal Post Number: 444 Registered: 11-2004	Posted on Tuesday, April 05, 2022 - 11:29 am:       Posted on Tuesday, April 05, 2022 - 11:15 am: Edit Post Delete Post Print Post Anyone who would like to see the review of this book, please email reclaimnews@earthlink.net In the book Dr. Alvie Schmidt claims -“Faith (Pistis) Became a Religious Principle and Exclusively Christian” He sees no connection between Christian faith in the New Testament and Abraham. He offers no understanding of the inspiration, inerrancy, or infallibility of the text. He claims that faith is based on human senses. He claims that anyone who says faith is not based on the five senses is antibiblical. Welcome to CPH.
Rolf David Preus (Rolf) Senior Member Username: Rolf Post Number: 10776 Registered: 5-2001	Posted on Tuesday, April 05, 2022 - 11:46 am:       I read Pr. Cascione's review twice. I believe he has hit on something very important. It seems that apologetics has assumed a role in theology that it ought not have. God speaks to us through his Word. Faith is totally dependent upon God's Word. Evidence available to the senses does not and cannot elicit faith. Apologetics as a disciple serves an essentially negative role. It does not and cannot prove the Christian faith. But it can refute the various false teachings and teachers who attack the faith. Proving the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead does not elicit faith. The Word elicits faith. Rev. Cascione has done us a service by his review of Al Schmidt's book. Rolf David Preus

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GJ - Casione and the Preus gang have wasted their lives regurgitating the Objective Justification of Missouri's founder, the syphilitic Bishop Martin Stephan.

CFW Walther was merely Stephan's flunky until he had the chance to tell everyone what the leadership knew - Stephan was not only a serial adulterer with young women but also a carrier of 

syphillis. The ship manifest showed that the oldest son went along and so did the favorite mistress of the man raised to the episcopacy by Walther and the gang.

Walther's lying exposure of Stephan allowed the great CFW to stage a riot, threaten the bishop's life, steal all his gold, and force him at gunpoint across the Mississippi. Those are multiple felonies added to Walther's earlier kidnapping of his niece and nephew from his father's parsonage.

I hate to tell the Missourians and WELSians (ELS and CLC too) this - Objective Justification is a cult dogma only taught and believed in the Midwest. No Lutheran church body teaches it, except ELCA by way of their rationalism and universalism - also derived from Calvinism. The European Lutherans see OJ as a Midwestern thing, and not Lutheran.

Cascione and One-Note Rolf Preus expose themselves by their staged outrage.

Were they bothered by the apostate Gospel of Mark commentary that came from their beloved Concordia Publishing House? 

Do they object to the same text approach in the Beck Bible promoted by Otten, Inc?

 The sudden confession of sin that supposedly schocked* and appalled the CFW circle never happened, and she never regretted her close relationship with the Saxon bishop.

*Queen Victoria was so German that she wrote in her diary about being "schocked."

They Fell Off a Truck - No, Really - Cascione Books by the Case. Calvinist News Special

The cub editor of Calvinist News has a rabid aversion to Luther's doctrine and exegesis, preferring the dreams and illusions of Pietists, Enthusiasts, and Calvinists (in declining order).

The Path to Understanding Justification by Faith.

 Link to the free PDF of The Path to Understanding Justification.

Hale cannot deal with Justification by Faith ("just a phrase"), Holy Communion ("idolatry"), or Greek exegesis of Romans ("the wrong path!") to show what Paul, Luther, and Maier taught.

A competent editor would feature my books (sent to him at no cost) and refute them as dangerous to Church Growth, Calvinism, and pastoral pension funds. Hale follows the self-destructive editorial policies of Herman Otten, who promoted Objective Justification, the vilification of Dr. Walter A. Maier (PhD, Harvard), Church Growth books, and a lying, hate-filled, anti-Luther book written by a priest.

Sons of Satan, count them - three!
Champions of apostasy!

Understanding Luther's Galatians - Order one.Free PDF -> Understanding Luther's Galatians

Parsing the Drivel Published by Matt Harrison, LCMS Synod President. My Responses Are in Green

 Harrison's lame denial of Justification by Faith can be found here.

https://blogs.lcms.org/2020/it-all-rests-on-christ/

Under a section titled “Paid in full”, President Harrison goes all-in on a simple-minded version of Objective Justification:

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Matt Harrison - Paid in full

"Because of verses like Rom. 4:25, which states, Christ “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification,” and 2 Cor. 5:19, “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,” we have spoken of an “objective” justification." 

GJ - Rolf Preus gave up citing Romans 4:25 some time ago, but Harrison has apparently not read the entire chapter for many decades. Romans 4, like all of Romans, all of Paul's inspired writing, is 100% Justification by Faith. So is the Book of Concord.

Romans 4:25 is only part of a sentence. Romans 4:24 says -

"4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

Harrison chose not to cite 1 Timothy 3:16 to claim the resurrection effected the absolution of the entire world. Rambach the Pietist thought so, and Huber the Calvinist-Lutheran argued world righteousness without faith. However, that creates confusion among the OJ crowd arguing for the cross or the empty tomb being the Moment of World Absolution. "Error loves ambiguities."

2 Corinthians 5:19 does not teach OJ, except to benighted LCMS-WELS-ELS seminary students who seldom study after graduation. Pity them, but confront them with their errors. 

"2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

A few verses before, the context - which matters - is "in Christ," so this applies to believers. Claiming 2:Corinthians 5:19 for OJ means Harrison is accusing Paul of contradicting himself. Thus, inerrancy falls to the ground. In fact, OJ (the darling of Calvinists and all liberals) builds upon the twin concepts of: 

1. the Bible constantly contradicting itself  
2. the Biblical text being untrustworthy (NIV, ESV)."

Harrison:

"That is, a divine judgment was rendered in the death and resurrection of Christ. All sins of the whole world have been paid for, and the price was Christ’s bloody death then and there. The world has been “justified” according to the New Testament. This means that the most important thing in Christianity is not how I feel about Jesus, or came to believe in Jesus, or my experience of Jesus (though all these things are certainly not unimportant). Christianity is not ultimately or primarily focused on me, my deeds, my experience, my sincerity. All things focused on me will falter and are imperfect (Rom. 7)."

GJ - Harrison merged the Moment of World Absolution(Good Friday, Easter? why not both?) because Walther/Stephan used the empty grave while their acolytes use the cross. Caught in another contradiction, they make it one long moment, silly beyond comprehension.

Another contradiction is their own separation of the Atonement from their precious OJ. As Robert Preus said in his bizarre essay, loved by Cascione, OJ is not the Atonement. But OJ is not Justification by Faith either, so OJ is a justification that declares the entire world free of sin and saved, for all time. As the Pietists like to say, "I cannot believe it unless it is already true." Thus the Virgin Birth in Isaiah 7 could not be believed in advance, nor could Abraham have believed in the Messianic Promises (Genesis 15:6) because they were not fulfilled for many centuries.

Harrison - or his ghost writers - tried to fashion a negative statement as a way of clarifying the OJness of OJ. He pontificated - "This means that the most important thing in Christianity is not how I feel about Jesus, or came to believe in Jesus, or my experience of Jesus (though all these things are certainly not unimportant)." Therefore, Justification by Faith is a feeling? He certainly placed anyone outside the OJ universe in the feelings/experience category.

"The big thing is the cross and resurrection. Everything for my salvation, and the salvation of the whole world, Jesus accomplished in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. One of my seminary professors explained it this way: If someone puts a million dollars into a bank account for you and you simply refuse to believe it, and thus gain no benefit from it, it does not mean that the money’s not there! Faith is simply recognizing the facts, and the bank card is the means to get at the fortune! The world has been reconciled to God in Christ, believe it or not. That makes our task of sharing the Gospel simple. It’s about telling folks they’re broke (repent!), but they’ve got a treasure with their name on it. “Here! It’s yours! It’s done! Believe it!” If by the power of the Word they believe, they have immediate access (Eph. 2:8–9; Acts 13:48) to complete forgiveness and peace of conscience. If by the stubbornness of their wretched human will and the will of the devil they refuse, they walk away from the treasure (Acts 13:46)."

GJ - I cannot unwind this farrago of claims, but I can see that Concordia, St. Louis became Seminex not long after Seminex. Everyone is broke but rich. They only need to be told they are rich, as long as they think they are broke. If they think they are broke (contingency alert! dive! dive!), they have a great treasure if they think they do. But that only works (a strawy efficacy, to be sure) if they believe they have a treasure. 

That sounds like the lifetime annuity promises made by the Planned Giving Counselors. "You will be rich and tax-free, unless we invest your money badly. But do not worry - it is an irrevocable contract."

 Robert Preus got away with this as the Ft. Wayne president. McCain, Cascione, Otten, and Hale endorsed it. Not content to impeach Walter A. Maier II, they impeached St. Paul, Luther, and the Book of Concord.

 Wow. Just wow. Scaer could be head of the reborn Synodical Conference with this epigram.