Here are Pastor Paul Rydecki's books.
Annotations on the First Six Chapters of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans by Johann Gerhard, James D. Heiser, Rachel K. Melvin and Paul A. Rydecki (Sep 13, 2014)
| Formats | Price | New | Used | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PaperbackGet it by Tuesday, Oct 14 | $17.99 | $17.95 | $19.62 |
2.
The Judaizing Calvin by Aegidius Hunnius, Paul A. Rydecki and James D. Heiser (Sep 21, 2012)
(2)
| Formats | Price | New | Used | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PaperbackGet it by Tuesday, Oct 14 | $8.99 | $8.99 |
3.
Theses Opposed to Huberianism: A Defense of the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification by Aegidius Hunnius and Paul A. Rydecki (Apr 17, 2012)
| Formats | Price | New | Used | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PaperbackGet it by Tuesday, Oct 14 | $8.99 | $8.99 | $65.94 |
4.
Theses on the Article of Justification: and The Forensic Appeal to the Throne of Grace in the Theology of the... by Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America and Paul A. Rydecki (Feb 15, 2014)
(5)
| Formats | Price | New | Used | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PaperbackGet it by Tuesday, Oct 14 | $6.26 |
5.
A Clear Explanation of the Controversy among the Wittenberg Theologians: concerning Regeneration and Election... by Aegidius Hunnius, Rachel K. Melvin, Paul A. Rydecki and Samuel Lautenbach (Feb 12, 2013)
(4)
| Formats | Price | New | Used | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PaperbackGet it by Tuesday, Oct 14 | $7.19 | $5.62 | $6.66 | ||
| Kindle EditionAuto-delivered wirelessly | $7.00 |
6.
I am just getting started on the Gerhard book, which is an excellent time stamp for the origins of the elusive dogma of Universal Objective Justification (UOJ).
UOJ advocates claim that the entire world is forgiven its sin, without the Gospel, without faith in Christ. Moreover--like Masonic Lodge members and homosexuals--they insist that everyone is, or longs to be, one with them.
The UOJ Stormtroopers have enlisted Jesus, Paul, Luther, Gerhard, and Calov as distinguished members of the Forgiven Without Faith Faculty.
Gerhard is useful to study because he is a bookend of the Reformation. He was not an editor of the Book of Concord, but he finished Chemnitz' Harmony of the Gospels, so Gerhard is end of the Reformation/Book of Concord era.
Here is the plot spoiler - no one took forgiveness without faith seriously until the era of Pietism, which Calvinism spawned in its rejection of the Means of Grace. But if forgiveness without faithis the Chief Article of the Christian Religion, the Master and Prince, the Article on which the Church stands or falls, Gerhard would be the one to notice it. He was prolific in every sense of the word - children, letters, and books.
Like Chemnitz, Gerhard dealt with the aftermath of the Reformation, which included the Roman Catholic response, but also the errors of the Calvinists and other Enthusiasts. Luther had all Enthusiasts pegged in the Smalcald Articles, but later writers necessarily dealt with them in detail.
Romans 3 v.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (KJV)
Προέθετο [He set forth], namely, in His eternal counsel and decree (1 Pet. 1:20). He has revealed this eternal counsel of His in the word of the Gospel. For in it, Christ is set before us, to be received by us by means of a true faith.
Romans 3:26
ΤὸνἐκπίστεωςΙησοῦ, “the one who is by faith of Christ,” that is, “the one who believes in Christ.” For just as οἱἐκπεριτομῆς[those by circumcision] are “circumcised,” so also those who are ἐκπἰστεωςΙησοῦ [by faith of Jesus] are “believers” in Christ.
In this passage the causes and the object of our justification before God are expressed.
1. The chief efficient cause is the grace of God, that is, God’s free favor that takes our misery into account.
2. The meritorious cause is Christ in the office of redemption, which the Apostle describes with three very significant words. First, with the word ἀπολύτρωσιν [redemption], which has in view the spiritual captivity in Satan’s kingdom from which we have been redeemed by the precious λύτρῳ [price] of Christ. Second, with the word ἱλαστήριον [Propitiatorium], which has in view the lid of the ark of the covenant in the Old Testament. Third, with the phrase the αἷμα τοῦ χριστοῦ [blood of Christ], which, by way of synecdoche, signifies the entire obedience of Christ, active as well as passive.
3. The instrumental cause is faith, that receiving (ληπτικόν) means that embraces the benefits of Christ offered in Word and Sacraments, which are the imparting (δοτικοῖς) means.
4. The formal causeis πάρεσις, the remission of sins, which is joined by an indivisible connection with the imputation of the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 4:3).
5. The final causewith respect to God is ἔνδειξις τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτοῦ [the demonstration of His righteousness]. In justification, or the remission of sins, God remains just in that He justly punishes our sins in Christ, who received them upon Himself; and He justifies believers by means of the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to them.
The object of justification is man the sinner, but only such a one as believes in Christ, that is, who acknowledges his sins from the Law, who seriously grieves over them, and who by faith applies to himself the promise of the remission of sins for the sake of Christ.
***
GJ - More later.