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| Gerhard Forde, ELCA, is much admired by ELCA and apostate Protestants of all stripes and sects. The LCMS is quite enthralled with his leavings. |
Every so often an individual will post something worthwhile on SpenerQuest, a group website devoted to praising Walther and one another. The gravitational pull is so great that Rolf Preus left the LCMS, got removed from the Little Sect on the Prairie, organized the Rolf Synod, saw the Rolf Synod depart from him, and rejoined the LCMS. No one has posted about how many synods he has been affiliated with, but perhaps they lost count, as I did.
Robert C. Baker did some presaging in his June 24, 2015, post on the LQ thread, "Reformation500 speaker admits a legacy," which was about the news that Billy Graham's grandson, Tullian Tchividjian, had resigned in June as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, following an admission of adultery after he alleged he found out his wife was having an affair.
In his post, Baker stated:
quote:"Behold, the fruits of the false teaching of Gerhard Forde, the subjectivist, experiential, Law-Gospel reductionist, existentialist ELCA faux-Lutheran, so beloved by some LCMS university and seminary faculty.
"Reading Tchividjian is like unto reading Forde: paraphrases abound."
Today Robert Baker saw exactly what I perceived in the Tullian Tchividjian scandal - the heir of D. James Kennedy and grandson of Billy Graham having an affair, divorcing his wife, and quoting the liberal Lutherans along the way.
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| Gerhard Forde contributed to this set, a best seller in ELCA, its standard seminary textbook at one point, though ELCA hastened to deny this fact. This epic collection of buffoonery rejects the Trinity, the Atonement, the divinity of Christ, and everything else. |
The foil is Gerhard Forde, the ELCA apostate that the Left raves almost as much as WELS clergy carry on about Valleskey - for the same reason. Forde contributed to the heinous Christian Dogmatics, edited by Braaten and Jenson, a double-volume set that mocks every article of the Apostles Creed. That made Forde an ELCA "confessional Lutheran" and hero of sorts. I found a blog praising him, authored by a Fuller DMin - another co-inky-dink, as you will see.
In another corner of the LCMS, some are discussing soft Antinomianism. I am not sure if this is the Dairy Queen version of Antinomianism or just another attempt to be cute. But - on that thread, listing various things Lutherans wrongly reject, I added - "Some Lutherans reject justification by faith." My comment was erased.
The greatest accolade is silence and shunning. They will not argue. Tis much easier to ignore, erase, and shun. But that only makes it more obvious that the target has been hit. Robert Preus repudiated UOJ. Response? Silence, even with the quotations provided and cited.
Bedfellows of Antinomianism
The heart of Antinomianism is making the Law obsolete. UOJ is the source for this in Lutherdom, and this UOJ is taught with great fervor in ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, the CLC (sic), and the shards and shreds of the Olde Synodical Conference.
Their key verse is from Galatians - the Law is a tutor that leads us to Christ. Then we no longer need the Law, and the Law is obsolete - so they imagine.
These UOJ apostates proclaim the entire world forgiven and saved, apart from faith, the Word, the Means of Grace. They also claim Luther as their champion, when nothing Luther wrote supports this cowardly form of Universalism.
The effect on any concept of right and wrong is clear. If everyone is forgiven and one only needs to know this, all sins are already forgiven in advance. Thus the chatter about Law and Gospel, the Confessions, and justification are really a sad, sick form of self-justification.
Although Baker is completely right about Forde influencing Tchividjian for the worse, he is saying this on a website devoted to the same dogma as Forde and Tchividjian.
WELS ELCA Antinomianism
When I began to read about Tchividjian and his unrepentant responses to his adultery, I noticed the same UOJ style responses that permeate WELS.
"As long as we know we are sinners, we know that we were already forgiven and saved 2000 years ago." That self-justification can long a long way in excusing any behavior, including the adultery of a District President for decades (with everyone knowing about it).
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| This WELS selfie features one or two obscene gestures plus several devil's horns. Lots of fun - Scott Barefoot observes. |