Charges Against Preus: Benke and Matzat Teach Allah Is True God

By: Rev. Jack Cascione
(Reclaim News expresses appreciation to the Missouri District Pastoral
delegate who forwarded information for the following article.)

First Vice President Daniel Preus of the LCMS was asked at the Missouri
District Convention if Rev. Don Matzat has filed charges against him,
because Preus does not believe the Moslems worship the true God.  Preus
replied that according to LCMS Bylaws he could not answer.

Preus's inability to answer the question, means that Matzat is indeed
charging him.  Here we have a flaw in the LCMS Bylaws.  They should be
rewritten so that all LCMS Pastors must answer, "I cannot answer that" when
asked if someone is filing charges against them.  As it stands at the
moment, we already know the answer, if they can't answer.

Matzat believes that faith in Christ and worship of the Trinity is not
necessary to keeping the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods
before me."  Matzat believes that we can know the true God from nature.

Pres. Benke recently wrote, "The Muslim God is also the true God." The Rev.
Don Matzat is following this same defective theology.  Rev. Matzat's papers
are posted on the website of Dr. Benke's church.
http://www.stpeter-brooklyn.org/serious_problem.html#defending

If Benke and Matzat believe that the Moslem's worship the true God, they are
teaching heresy.

Matzat writes:  "I understand the reality of false gods or other gods when
it comes to an idol or graven image. One can behold the idol or image, point
to it and say, 'There is a false god!' This is obvious since making graven
images or worshiping actual idols is the primary prohibition of the First
Commandment.  I do not understand the concept of a false god or 'other gods'
within a theistic context."

So, according to Rev. Matzat, a hand-made idol is a false god but not the
god of the Muslims and other non-believers.  This is utterly contrary to the
Gospel, but there is more.

Matzat writes about the Apostle's Creed, "It is contrary to teach that those
who do not believe the Gospel do not believe in the true God of the First
Article."

Rev. Matzat is so confused, that he actually makes a perfectly orthodox
statement that negates the theme of these papers.  He writes, "While false
gods do not exist, man, perverting the knowledge of the true God, creates
so-called false gods out of the imaginations of his own heart or turns the
knowledge of the true God into an idol...made with human hands.  It is to
this that the First Commandment speaks."

Then in the same paper as the quote above he writes in contradiction,
"Because the Jew, the Turk, the Papist...distort the knowledge of God does
not mean that they have false gods."

All this flows from the Yankee Stadium controversy.  It must be laid at the
feet of Pres. Benke.  It centers on him.  Could we ever have imagined a day
when a District President of the LC-MS would not only tolerate but also
teach such error?  Is this the LC-MS or the ELCA?

At the Missouri District Convention, Pres. Kieschnick had a Q & A session.
He was asked if Jews and Muslims believe in the true God.  Pres. Kieschnick
made a fine orthodox statement that those who reject Jesus do not believe in
the true God.

Now we will see if Pres. Kieschnick pays lip service to theology or will he
actually carry out proper ecclesiastical discipline of Pres. Benke and Rev
Matzat for this muddle on the Doctrine of God.  Let's hope his discipline
isn't just for signers of orthodox statements like "That They May Be One".

June 17, 2003