Thursday, December 16, 2010

BM on Wedland's 1951 paper.

This was kelmed at Ichabod. The red emphasis are mine, but the rests are BM's.

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Introduction to WELS DP Beckman's Guilt-Free Saint...":

(W)ELSian Ernst Henry Wendland quotes an appropriate warning, by the Ohio Synod's Kirchenzeitung in its May issue of 1905, to everyone who teaches and defends the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification in his essay, Review of Common Confession Article VI-Justification given to the Biennial WELS Convention at DMLC, New ULM, MN in 1951

Reconciliation and personal justification are thrown together (by Missouri), so that nothing is left of an individual justification by faith. According to Missouri’s new teaching the whole world is justified, in fact, already when Christ completed his work of redemption. A different justification, which takes place when man comes to faith is not present according to this teaching. Thus the central teaching of Scripture and of the Lutheran church is destroyed. (2) According to this new doctrine of justification is already completed without faith, before faith ever enters into the picture. Faith limps behind. Man should only believe in a justification already completed a long time ago. Thus Missouri destroys the Bible teaching of a justification by faith. (3) It is no longer true according to this new doctrine that God first justifies in the moment that a sinner comes to faith. No longer - faith, then justification; rather centuries ago a justification of the whole world - now believe this! We shudder at this sin against everything sacred! God preserve these blinded creatures, who prate so about the clarity of Scripture, and condemn vigourously everything that doesn’t suit their fancy. Now through their own blindness they have fallen so deeply into the night of error! God have mercy upon the poor people who are no longer hearing the central teaching of Scripture, but rather a miserable fallacy, a poor figment of man’s own invention (Lehre u. Wehre, Vol. 51, p. 385 ff.) Page 3

E.H. Wendland goes on to clarify the heart of UOJ and dismisses Missouri's Brief Statement as too ambiguous in regards to declaring the whole unbelieving world forgiven, justified and righteous by God's divine verdict.

"Now we come finally to the Common Confession, where this doctrinal divergence has been supposedly resolved. As we approach it we naturally ask, “Will it contain an unequivocal statement on objectivejustification? Will it rule out the thought that faith is first necessary before any justification of God’s part is possible?”


We read: “By His redemptive work Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world; hence, forgiveness of sin has been secured and provided for all men. (This is often spoken of as objective justification.)”


We readily agree that this first sentence is a statement which sets forth the Scriptural truth of universal redemption. We cannot say that there is anything unscriptural about it, as far as it goes. But we certainly cannot agree with the following parenthetical statement, that this sentence adequately and unequivocally covers objective justification. As a matter of fact, we cannot find the essential characteristic of objective justification mentioned at all, the fact that God “has already declared the whole world to be righteous in Christ” (cf. Brief Statement). “Secured and provided” do not convey the thought of an outright grant, declaring man as acquitted before the bar of God’s justice. Perhaps they can be interpreted in that light by members of the Missouri Synod. But they can just as well be interpreted by the American Lutheran Church to uphold their old position, that although God has secured and provided forgiveness of sin by the redemptive work of Christ, He does not actually justify or declare the sinner to be righteous until the first spark of faith is kindled in his heart. The ambiguity of the Common Confession’s definition of objective justification is so evident that we cannot see how it can be accepted as a final settlement of the old controversy.

"http://www.wlsessays.net/files/WendlandJustification.pdf

Note the new URLs for essays. The old links will not work.
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ME: Many think that this controversy is rather new. Actually it has been going on for 100 years now. It is interesting that one has to skim through the works of UOJ defenders to mine the quotes of anti-UOJers. The above is an example.

A lot of people consider me a poor soul, someone to be pitied, someone to be sad for, why?... because I have casted my lot against UOJ. Thanks for people's sympathy.

8 comments:

Ichabod the Glory Has Departed said...

I am going to post about the Stoeckhardt quotation, a little farther on. It is so absurd that it could be a case study in circular reasoning.

LPC said...

Thank you. Let me know.

LPC

Brett Meyer said...

It is interesting that one has to skim through the works of UOJ defenders to mine the quotes of anti-UOJers.

This is very true. Maier's paper was the only one I could think of that was defending Scripture.

A good example of your quote above is the paper written by H.A. Preus where he quotes Prof. August Weenaas. Preus was attacking Scripture and Prof. Weenaas was defending Justification by Faith Alone. It was first given to me by Pr. Rolf Preus who wrote the intro to the paper at the site below. He meant it as a clarifying paper so that I would agree with H.A. Preus and the group on Luther Qwest. I admitted that I fully agreed with Prof. Weenaas. That didn't go over very well.

http://www.christforus.org/Papers/Content/HermanAmbergPreusonJustificationofWorld.htm

If it helps Lito, I don't feel sorry for you. Christ has blessed you with your reliance on His Word alone. By His grace you are faithful to the true Gospel as you carry your cross. I rejoice with you!! Christ's continued blessings!

LPC said...

Hi BM,

You mentioned Maier's paper. Why is it that when we talk to people about the inaccuracy of UOJ with Scripture and speak to them also of the Maier paper, they never bother struggling nor checking his work?

I only had one pastor in my experience of late that bothered looking at it. It was only Pr. Simms (see his comments in previous posts) though I disagreed with his criticism of Maier's interpretation of some Biblical passages. Maier's interpretations are spot on and thoroughly careful and most responsible (IMHO).

I find this lack-of-checking-the-sources-attitude of UOJers pathetic.


How I wish the body of Prof. August Weenaas' papers are available, for I also found his criticisms most reasonable! The same is true for th position of the LCA (as far as it is quoted) in the Wedland paper. When I was reading it, I wondered how could one find fault in this...Reconciliation and personal justification are thrown together (by Missouri), so that nothing is left of an individual justification by faith. According to Missouri’s new teaching the whole world is justified, in fact, already when Christ completed his work of redemption. A different justification, which takes place when man comes to faith is not present according to this teaching. Thus the central teaching of Scripture and of the Lutheran church is destroyed.

The above is not a misrepresentation of UOJ Missouri, the documents are in front of us, we can all check the sources, Missouri does teach the above! I.e, reconciliation and personal justification are thrown together, the verdict is true, Missouri destroys JBFA according to the Ohio Synod.

May God's peace be yours too Brett. Specially in this advent season. Thank you for your research.

LPC

Brett Meyer said...

How about this (W)ELS quote:

"Long ago God already forgave every man his sin, believer and unbeliever alike. Nothing more remains to be done by the sinner himself before the anger of God is appeased. Therefore, a Christian can go to any man on earth and say to him, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The Absolution in the Theology and Practice of the Reformation
(W)ELS - Pastor Edwin Lehmann

http://www.wlsessays.net/files/LehmannReformation.pdf

Right now I'm picturing the Lutheran Synods telling the Antichrist, the Roman Catholic Pope - "Holy Father, your sins are forgiven."

Wait, I'm being told that the LCMS already greeted the Antichrist in the name of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

"I am grateful to be greeted by the Pope through my bishop. Most members of the LCMS are likewise proud to be acknowledged and recognized by the world’s most widely recognized Christian leader. With two billion Christians in the world, it would be easy for any Pope not to know that there is a Missouri Synod. After all, we are less than three million. There are more than a billion Roman Catholics. There are seventy million Lutherans, divided into more than a hundred separate bodies. It is something of an achievement for any non-American to know anything at all about the Missouri Synod. I wonder what Benedict does know about us.

Does he know, for instance, that we still have a few who insist that our 16th century Confessions attributed the pejorative “Anti-Christ” to all popes for all times. If Benedict does know that, then he is to be admired for obeying the Bible’s command, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”


http://www.lutheranforum.org/articles/john-hannah/Please_Greet_Missouri/

Oh, in these last few days of a mad old world the judgement has begun in the Lutheran Synods.

LPC said...

BM,

"Holy Father, your sins are forgiven."

The Synods can also, add,(with tears of joy and admiration in their eyes) "In fact, Holy Father, your sins have already been forgiven even before you became the Anti-Christ. It is all good. All is ok".

I imagine in my usual skeptical self, Pr Hannah ( maybe he is now Fr. Hannah) since there are LC-MS ministers love that title - Father) drooling with admiration at Benedict's gesture of greeting the LC-MS.

John 5:44

It is mad and crazy world we live in. .

LPC

Brett Meyer said...

Lito, may you and your family have a blessed Christmas! My prayers are with you and yours.

In Christ,
Brett

LPC said...

BM,

Thank you for your thoughts - I was just thinking the other day of sending a Christmas blessing to fellow ichabodians.

Brett, may the peace of Christmas be with you and the whole family this season and through the coming year.

God be with you bro. My prayers are also with you and your loved ones.

Lito