It is Lent 2002, and the LCMS is confused over who died on the cross.
Doctor Waldo Werning flatly denies that on Good Friday all of God died on
the cross. He believes that only a part of God died on the cross.
Werning claims that Cascione is the only pastor in the Synod who believes
that in Christ, the entire God died on the cross. He also claims no LCMS
pastor or professors agrees with Cascione on this point.
Doctor Waldo Werning writes "Cascione, employs another argument that
100% of God literally died on the Cross by quoting the Athanasian Creed out of
context, 'There is one Almighty, not three Almighties.'"
Werning comes to this conclusion based on his false teaching about the
Trinity endorsed by the South Wisconsin District President.
Werning does not understand that if all of God didn't die on the cross, how
can we be sure that Christ forgave all of our sins? What part of God's blood
in Acts 20:28 is not God's blood?
God is not divided. He has no parts. "The Son is the one and only
God" (John 5:20): (Koehler "A Summer of Christian Doctrine"
page 32) "Each person of the Godhead is the entire God" (totus
Deus). (J.T. Mueller "Christian Dogmatics" page 148)
Pieper tells us that every person of the Trinity is fully God, not one
third of God, yet there is only one God (Vol. I: 385, 386, 390, 405). Thus we
read in TLH hymn 154, verse 3, "When God the Mighty Maker died" not
"When one third of God the Mighty Maker died!"
The Father and the Holy Spirit did not die on the cross, only Jesus Christ
died on the cross, yet Jesus Christ is not one third of God. Christ told His
disciples, "When you have seen me you have seen the Father. (John 14:9)
With the rise of the Church Growth-CEO-PLI-invent-your-own-God Movement,
according to Werning, this is a teaching that is no longer supported in the
LCMS.
March 6th, 2002, Doctor Waldo Werning wrote that Pastor Jack Cascione was
a, "judge of Israel or God's people."
I respond: Not only is it my right as a pastor to judge all doctrine taught
by Werning, and the entire Synod, it is my right and the right of every
Christian, every man, woman, and child, to judge publicly what is true and
false about any teaching of God's Word. Speaking of Matt. 7:15, Walther's
"Church and Ministry" quotes Luther on page 338 (1987 edition),
"For this reason, all teachers with their doctrine must be subject to the
judgment of the hearers."
"Jesus First," and the president and officers of the South
Wisconsin District, endorse Doctor Waldo Werning's teaching on the Trinity in
his book, "Health and Healing for the LCMS" as found on pages 33 and
34. They accuse Cascione of breaking the Eighth Commandment for attacking
Werning's teaching about God.
Werning keeps writing about a limitless number of untruths, lies, and
slanders told about him. However, the correct teaching on the Trinity is the
issue, not Werning or Cascione. The First Commandment and Matthew 16:15 are
more important than Matthew 18:15. Werning places the Second Table of the Law
before the First Table of the Law. But the Bible tells us we should obey God
rather than men, even if telling the truth about God means slandering a
thousand LCMS pastors.
During our last meeting with witnesses, Werning claims that Cascione spoke
114 times during the 2 and ½ hours. Pastor Gene Koessel and Pastor Michael
Roth were observers from the Circuit and not witnesses for Cascione. In an
unusual twist on Matthew 18, Werning ordered that no witnesses could speak. He
ordered a vicar who was present, out of the room. In the past, Werning has
also refused to meet at Redeemer Lutheran Church and claims that the Voters'
Assembly of Redeemer Lutheran Church is a "kangaroo court."
Pastor Gene Koessel reported to Redeemer Lutheran Church Voters' Assembly
on March 11, 2002: "If Cascione said he himself spoke 10% of the time, to
me, it appeared that Cascione spoke much less than 10% of the time. My
observation was that Werning took control of the meeting. There was no
moderator. Werning read off a 13, page single spaced document. He kept asking
questions and avoided answering Cascione's questions. When Werning finished
reading his statements, he ended the meeting."
Where does Werning stand on the Trinity? He defends the following to be
correct statements about the Trinity in his Book, endorsed by Jesus First.
- "Truly knowing the Father and the Holy Spirit, as well as Christ,
guides to new experiences with God."
- "The Three-fold Art of Experiencing God"
- "experience Christ as Savior through prayer,"
- "experiencing God in a three-fold manner."
- "God revealed Himself in three ways,"
- "three manners of being (God above us, God among us, God in
us),"
- "three levels of reality (nature, history, existence)"
- "three ways in which God reveals Himself"
- "three forms of address [from God] ('You shall!,' 'You may!,' 'You
can!')"
- "we also reduce our possibilities of experiencing God"
- "one of the three ways in which God has revealed Himself"
I refuse to bow down to the South Wisconsin District Baal. President Ron
Meyer should be removed from office for defending Werning's false teaching on
the Trinity. But they would rather keep him and lose the cross of Christ.
Werning claims he can find the Trinity in nature. The fact is, that no one
can find a gracious God, let alone a gracious Trinity in nature, even on a
sunny day a national park. The heavens declare the glory of God, not the grace
of God. Only the bloody cross declares the grace of God. A gracious God is
only revealed in the Means of Grace.
Like the Assembly of God, Werning claims he experiences Jesus, as Savior
through prayer when the only thing he is experiencing is his own fantasy. If
we can experience Christ, we wouldn't need faith. Only faith receives
forgiveness, experience or the "spirit" receives nothing.
Werning divides the divine essence into three activities in God. He teaches
and defends three forms of address, being, revelation, reality, and experience
in God. This is madness. There is only one God, one revelation, and one Being
is God. Laetsch comments about Zachariah 12:4, "Whom the gods destroy,
they first drive mad."
"Modern Theologians [falsely] teach that a threefold divine operation,
which the Christian experiences, corresponds to the antemundane metaphysical
Trinitarian relation in God." (Pieper Vol. 1: 401)
Werning can no longer say that the only God, God the mighty maker died on
the cross, only a part of God.