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Confessing the Athanasian Creed is the way we know we
are keeping the correct faith in the Trinity and Christ and our thus keep
our eternal salvation.
There is a significant penalty
in the LCMS for those who challenge false doctrine about the Trinity.
At this time, it is a much
greater struggle to oppose false doctrine about the Trinity than for those
who publish the false doctrine.
On
Sunday, June 24,
2001
, I published a Reclaim News article exposing Werning’s false doctrine
about the Trinity which he sent to every 2001 LCMS Convention delegate.
Werning called the Redeemer Lutheran Church Office on
Monday, June 25, 2001
and said,
“This is a declaration of war,” and he also said, “I’m going
to file charges against you.
For the next year, Werning blitzed the officers of
Redeemer
Lutheran
Church
with false
accusations and character assassination against their pastor.
He was determined to change their minds to a false definition of
Christ
Werning quickly rallied enthusiastic support from The
South Wisconsin and the Texas District Presidents to defend his published
heresy about the Trinity. Officers
from the South Wisconsin District wrote open letters that claimed my
criticism of Werning’s doctrine about the Trinity was a violation of the
Eighth Commandment. Additional
pastors and Synodical officers including the former Chairman of the COP, Dr.
John Heins, openly joined in supporting Werning’s lies about God.
Heins was actually one of Werning’s witnesses.
Regretfully, in the LCMS today, politics, cronyism,
and personal friendships, carry more weight than correct doctrine.
Thus far, criticism of Werning’s false teaching has
resulted in hundreds of pages of letter and two years of lies, threats,
intimidation, meetings, technicalities, and Synodical bylaw jingoism, with
no end in sight.
We have to wonder how a layperson would have any
opportunity of preventing the spread of Werning’s lies about God.
To this day, Werning refuses to admit that each
Person of the Trinity is the whole, complete, and entire God, apart from
whom there is no other God.
He refuses to admit that God’s actions are one
action, not three communications, three realities, three revelations, three
beings, and three experiences.
He refuses to admit that all of God, that is the
entire essence died on the cross in Jesus Christ.
Werning wants to know if God died on the cross, then whom was Jesus
talking to from the cross. Werning
states that asking if Jesus is God or one third of God is a philosophical
question, not an article of faith.
He questions how God could be dead in the tomb for
three days.
If, as Werning believes, there are extra parts of
God, outside of Jesus Christ, then our prayers in Jesus’ name are not to
God because God cannot be divided.
No less than the current Synodical President has come
to Werning’s assistance.
In a public memo to the COP and Board of Directors,
President Kieschnick published that I was being charged with breaking the
Eighth Commandment. The rule
about not publishing information about the charges doesn’t apply to the
LCMS President.
If I’m guilty of breaking the Eighth Commandment,
then Werning is telling the truth about God.
If pointing out doctrinal error in the LCMS in now a
violation of the Eighth Commandment that means that Jesus Christ sinned
against Caiaphas, the Apostles sinned against the Sanhedrin, Luther sinned
against the Pope, and God has sinned against the devil.
But let’s be realistic.
The Synodical President isn’t really concerned one way or the other
about Werning’s doctrine of the Trinity.
Practically speaking, the one who complains about false doctrine
commits a far greater offence than the one who teaches it.
The Voters of Redeemer Lutheran Church invited Werning
to their voters’ Assembly. Werning
responded with the following quotations on
December 5, 2001
“The Redeemer Church resolution only compounds the
sins of your Pastor, Rev. Jack Cascione, but now makes you (the voters)
guilty by agreeing with and defending him in his disobeying of God’s Word
by breaking of Matthew 18, and the 8th Commandment as he holds public court
against me as your victim, who has at the meeting and who was totally
misrepresented and lied about in his statements about me to you.”
Werning keeps teaching that I have broken Matthew 18 by
complaining about his false doctrine. In
other words, he reserves the right to publish false doctrine but those who
complain about it in public are personally attacking Werning.
An attack on Werning’s doctrine, is an attack on his person.
Werning believes that doctrine is also about himself
and objective truth rests in his person.
In other words, if Werning writes that the moon is made of green
cheese and a critic publicly disagrees, Werning will claim a violation of
the Eighth Commandment and the Synodical President will publish the charges.
Again Werning writes to
Redeemer
Lutheran
Church
on
Dec. 5, 2001
:
“You will see that your Pastor has consistently
disobeyed God’s Word and LCMS practices based on the Bible . . .”
“Please note that your pastor is a ‘lone ranger’
public accuser who has failed to and refused to follow God’s word . . .”
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