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| Martin Franzmann, 1907-1976, taught for WELS and then for Missouri. He is most famous for his hymns. |
Although I sent off four boxes of Lutheran books, I also ordered a few items from Amazon and Alibris. If I can get a well known volume for for a few dollars, I order it.
I had a scan of Franzmann's commentary on Romans, but I saw the book on Alibris and bought it. The book is not a commentary at all and is certainly not scholarly. There are no references and no index. There is a list of some books on Romans with a brief description. I would call it a homiletical book.
One sentence gives away the theme of the SynConference:
In raising him from the dead, God was "justifying the ungodly" for whom He died; God was saying to a doomed mankind, "You are righteous, you shall live." There is in our faith, therefore, the same realistic recognition of the death of man that was in Abraham's faith, and the same expectation of the creative miracle of God's grace which raises the dead and calls into being righteous men.
Martin H. Franzmann, Romans, A Commentary, CPH, 1968, p. 86.
That was his statement about the ending of Romans 4. Franzmann's obscure words are the opposite of what Paul wrote.
KJV Romans 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.
God was telling all of mankind "You are righteous"? Of course, Franzmann is not that explicit. The UOJ writers are seldom that clear. But the thoroughly brained-washed know that is what those words mean. They agree with the Pietist Rambach, who argued that the resurrection of Christ absolved all of mankind - especially the unbelievers. Jay Webber and Jon Buchholz support the Halle Pietism version of universal forgiveness and salvation. You just have to believe their dogma is true: justification by faith in UOJ.
Franzmann was a leader of the conservatives, and he was just as UOJ as Richard Jungkuntz, the leader of the Seminex coalition.
The UOJ position is not in harmony with the efficacy of the Word and certainly opposes the Means of Grace. Can the blue text be brought into agreement with Romans 10? Isaiah 55? Not at all.
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| Richard Jungkuntz also started out WELS, also at Watertown, and also joined the Board of Doctrine, LCMS, after teaching at Concordia, Springfield, Illinois. As chairman of the Seminex board, he headed the first gay Lutheran seminary, by partnering with the Metropolitan Community Church. Deppe was the Seminex professor who went with the faculty to teach at LSTC, ELCA, and later joined the MCC, where he belonged. |