Bad News for Apostates - Pageviews Reach 5.5 Million for Ichabod the Glory Has Departed

Not long ago, the pageviews for Ichabod, the Glory Has Departed reached 5 million.

Normally there is a post only for each new million mark, but the synod officials deserve updates more frequently. They are largely responsible. By chasing away readers with their fulminations, they create a forbidden fruit response. Fuller is great, but Ichabod is the blackest sin. What's new on Ichabod?

Secondly, they are always reading the blog, so they add to the views.


The worse things are, the more the apostate Lutheran leaders proclaim the entire world forgiven - without faith, without the Gospel, without the Means of Grace.

The only requirement for a confessional Lutheran today is - call yourself a confessional Lutheran.

Remember the late Father Richard John Neuhaus (LCMS, AELC, LCA, ELCA, Church of Rome)? He was trained at the greatest seminary in the world, Concordia in St. Louis - a contemporary of Herman Otten and Kurt Marquart. Neuhaus called himself a confessional Lutheran just before he joined the Church of Rome and became a priest.

The authors of the Braaten-Jenson Christian Dogmatics called themselves confessional Lutherans while rejecting all the articles of faith in the Apostles Creed.

Father Neuhaus, was connected to Concordia St. Louis, like Edward Preuss, who also taught Universalism and became Roman Catholic. LCMS leaders still adore Edward Preuss on Justification without Faith.

Cowardly Lion: Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got?
Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman: Courage! 
From Quotes

F. R. Eduard Preuss, 1834-1904, Die Rechtfertigung der Suender vor Gott. Cited in Rick Nicholas Curia, The Significant History of the Doctrine of Objective or Universal Justification, Alpine, California: California Pastoral Conference, WELS. January 24-25, 1983. p. 24. [GJ - This restoration of all is used by Karl Barth, official theologian for Fuller, to promote Universalism.]


"But the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the sinner takes place when the Holy Spirit brings him to faith through Baptism and the Word of the Gospel. Our sins were imputed to Christ at His suffering and death, imputed objectively after He, by His active and passive obedience, fulfilled and procured all righteousness for us. But the imputation of His righteousness to us takes place when we are brought to faith." [procured in italics in text]
Robert D. Preus, Justification and Rome, St. Louis: Concordia Academic Press 1997, p. 72.

Abraham Calov: "Although Christ has acquired for us the remission of sins, justification, and sonship, God just the same does not justify us prior to our faith. Nor do we become God's children in Christ in such a way that justification in the mind of God takes place before we believe." [Apodixis Articulorum Fide, Lueneburg, 1684]
Robert D. Preus, Justification and Rome, St. Louis: Concordia Academic Press 1997, p. 131n. 


"Nowhere in the Bible is any man constituted or declared righteous ‘without faith, before faith.’”
R. C. H. Lenski, Romans, Augsburg Publishing House: Minneapolis, 1963, p. 382. Romans 5:19-20.


Basic Errors of UOJ

I want to keep this basic. The UOJ fanatics like to tie up people in terminology while ignoring the catastrophic errors in their own thinking. For instance, Dan and Rolph Preus continue to promote a position contrary to what their father repudiated in his final book - and they edited it. (Old writer's joke - An editor is someone whose belt size is bigger than his IQ.)

There is only one justification - not two.
Justification is used in the Scriptures and the Book of Concord only in the context of justification by faith apart from the works of the Law. Sig Becker admitted that in his essay - UOJ, OJ, and General Justification are new terms. In German, as Kurt Marquart observed, "general" means universal.

The first recorded use of General Justification is from Burk, cited in Hoenecke, long after the Reformation and Book of Concord. Note that Hoenecke was trained at the center of Pietism, Halle University, as a student of Tholuck, a Universalist. Burk was the son-in-law of Bengel, a very strange Pietist indeed. The double-justification scheme came from the Pietist Knapp, who preceded Tholuck at Halle University. Knapp's lectures were widely available in English and German, in America and Europe, before Walther (a Pietist) began promoting it.


Righteousness was imputed to Abraham through faith. 

KJV Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

KJV Romans 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 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 againfor our justification.

He is the Father of Faith in Romans 4, foundational for justification by faith in Romans 5:1-2. How could he be justified before Christ, then declared justified (with the whole world, Hottentots and Hindoos included), and...?

Those who separate the Holy Spirit from the Word are Enthusiasts (Luther, Book of Concord). Nothing is more ridiculous that saying the entire world is forgiven (including everyone in Hell) but not really forgiven until they "accept" this universal forgiveness without the Word, without Means, without the Spirit, without faith. J. P. Meyer, WELS, in Ministers of Christ: "Will he accept or will he decline?"

1. The Office of the Keys is rendered obsolete because everyone is already forgiven. That is why so many UOJ-CG pastors are Antinomian unionists.
2. All Law/Gospel distinctions are merged, since everyone is forgiven - Gospel Reductionism (Seminex and ELCA) is UOJ in another uniform.
3. Worship is simply a convenient way to get the cell groups together on Sunday, because the real work of the church takes place in conventicles "transforming lives." (See The CORE and all the other clones of Pietism.)

I hope this helps. So ends today's Talking Points Memo.