"Jesus First" Promotes New God for LCMS
By Rev. Jack Cascione

 

Doctor Waldo Werning has filed charges against this writer for rejecting his false doctrine. What is amazing is that the South Wisconsin District President, Ron Meyer, Vice President Paul Borgman, and Circuit 22 Counselor Ronald Krug have endorsed Dr. Waldo Werning's doctrine of the Trinity as stated on pages 33 and 34 of Werning's book, "Healing and Health For the LCMS."

As Borgman explained to me, Werning's writings about the Trinity are compatible with the Athanasian Creed!

At this point I don't care if the entire COP and an angel from heaven comes down and tells me Werning is right, anyone who follows his teaching as correct violates the Athanasian Creed and loses their soul.

As a sinful human being I am as subject to error as the next man. Werning and President Ron Meyer would have me believe, teach, and confess a new teaching of the Trinity. They should bring me to repentance. Show me the quotes from the Bible, Luther, the Lutheran Confessions or Pieper that say that God has, "revealed himself in three ways," "three forms of address," "three levels of reality," "three manners of being," or that anyone is "experiencing God in a three-fold MANNER." Show me the quote that says we ". . . experience Christ as Savior through prayer?" I'm waiting.

After reading Werning's understanding of the Trinity I would have to believe I never understood the Christian faith.

The following are paragraphs from Werning's book that are impossible for me to believe. I will not be converted to this new god of "Jesus First" and the South Wisconsin District.

Werning writes as follows on pages 33-34:
"A balanced Trinitarian faith is vital because it is also the foundation for building the functional and practical side of church life. Truly knowing the Father and the Holy Spirit, as well as Christ, guides to new experiences with God. It leads us to a deeper recognition of our strength in the Triune God, our limitations, our view of Satan and our adversaries, our fears, and our mission vision. Christians recognize God as Creator, experience Christ as Savior through prayer, and sense the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, experiencing God in a three-fold manner."

"If we make each Person of the Trinity a different color to distinguish their Person and work, we might adopt the proposal made by Christian Schwarz, (The Three-fold Art of Experiencing God, 1999, ChurchSmart Resources, Carol Stream IL 60188), who says that as God revealed Himself in three ways, we can make the Creator with creation green, the Son, Jesus with salvation, red, and the Holy Spirit, with spiritual enlightenment, blue (pp. 8-11). Thus we have three colors, not just red as Scaer, Weinrich and friends contend."

"Schwarz helps us understand the true nature of the Triune God, as he shows in the three colors, three manners of being (God above us, God among us, God in us), three works, (creation, salvation, sanctification), three levels of reality (nature, history, existence) and three forms of address ('You shall!,' 'You may!,' 'You can!') Schwarz states, 'Once our view of God has been reduced to one of the three ways in which God reveals Himself (expressed in the three colors), we also reduce our possibilities of experiencing God . . . in world wide Christianity, there are three main groups who, positively seen, can be considered as advocates for one of the three ways in which God has revealed Himself: the 'Liberals' as advocates of the creation revelation, the 'Evangelicals' (author's comment: LCMS, too) as advocates for the salvation revelations, and the 'Charismatics' as advocates for personal revelations (Holy Spirit).' Thus it becomes obvious that God has been isolated primarily into one of the three Persons by the Scaer and Weinrich theology, as the primary one is played off against the others, and each must now choose their favorite 'god.'"

If this is the new god of the "Jesus First" the COP, and the LCMS, it is better to put an end to the Synod as soon as possible because this is not the God of the Bible. It is not the God I worship. I will not bow down. My removal from the clergy roster by these deluded pastors of the South Wisconsin District in Dispute Resolution would be a blessing. It would lose the Synod but gain my soul. It is time for President Ron Meyer to resign.


Rev. Jack Cascione is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS - MI) in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He has written numerous articles for Christian News and is the author of Reclaiming the Gospel in the LCMS: How to Keep Your Congregation Lutheran. He has also written a study on the Book of Revelation called In Search of the Biblical Order.
He can be reached by email at pastorcascione@juno.com.

July 12, 2001