Doctor Waldo Werning's attempt to answer the unanswerable about the Trinity
led him to deny the Gospel when he was asked, "When Christ died on the
cross, was it all of God or part of God?" and he replied, "I'm not
going to answer, God."
Werning understood that if he said, "God" it would mean that
Christ was more than one third of God, so he could not answer. When he replies
that the Son of God died on the cross, he means Christ is one third of God or
not all of God.
Werning's book "Health and Healing For the LCMS" (pages 33-34,
sent to every 2001 Convention delegate) is the cause for the confusion about
Good Friday. LCMS South Wisconsin District officials and "Jesus
First" are endorsing Werning's distortions about the Trinity.
This confusion about the Person of Christ and the Trinity shows that the
Synod is no longer able to maintain a clear, unified, public teaching on its
most fundamental doctrines among its top officials.
Saying that Jesus Christ is "all of God" does not mean that the
Father or the Holy Spirit were on the cross with Jesus Christ. Only Jesus
Christ died on the cross. The Father and the Holy Spirit are not the Son, and
the Father and Holy Spirit did not suffer and die on the cross.
The doctrine of the Trinity is filled with apparent contradictions that
cannot and must not be explained by human logic or reason. According to Cyril
(fourth century AD), "God has redeemed us with His own suffering."
(Page 124 "Loci Theologici" Cheminitz, CPH 1989) Cyril does not say,
"one third of God suffered." We also know that it is impossible for
God to suffer but, in Christ, God suffered on Good Friday for the sins of the
world.
Jesus Christ is not one third of God, but all of God. So also the Father is
all of God and the Holy Spirit is all of God, and yet there are not three Gods
but only One God. God can never be less than "all of God!"
"Each Person of the Trinity is the entire God." (J. T Muller
Christian Dogmatics CPH page 148). "Of these Persons each one is the
whole God, besides whom there is no other God." (Luther, same page) This
concept defies human comprehension and explanation.
The following is also true: God is eternal and God cannot die yet, in
Christ, God died for the sins of the world.
Werning's drift into Tritheism is evident in his claim that he experiences
the Trinity in nature. He claims God is experienced in earthquakes rather than
saying that only the earthquake is experienced. He writes about God as three
revelations, communications, levels of reality, experiences, and manners of
being. Hence, he can only think of Jesus Christ as one third of God on the
cross.
Werning has created three divisions in God's work and activity. The true
faith is that "There is no division or limitation of the divine
attributes, works, or worship among the three Persons, but that the three
Persons share in them without any distinctions of rank." (Pieper Vol. I.
Page 386)
Werning also claims to experience Christ as Savior through prayer when all
he has experienced is the prayer.
My reward for pointing out Werning's false doctrine, which he sent to every
2001 Convention delegate, is to have three grossly incompetent South Wisconsin
District officials endorse Werning's doctrine of the Trinity and write that I
have broken the Eighth Commandment.
Why can't Ron Meyer, the South Wisconsin District President, speak the
truth about the Gospel? In order to protect Werning, Meyer slanders God
unless, of course, Werning is speaking the real position about the Trinity for
the LCMS.
At the same time, there are hundreds of LCMS clergy who appear to be more
interested in defending their so-called "sacrament of ordination"
and divine authority over the Voters' Assemblies, than speaking clearly about
the Trinity. While defending their collars they may loose the doctrine of God.
Saying "100% of God," or "all of God," died on the
cross, has troubled some LCMS pastors because the Church fathers didn't speak
in terms of percentages.
Other phrases describing Jesus Christ as "the entire God,"
"Totus Deus," "the only God," "the whole Trinity is
found in this Man," "the whole God," and "the fullness of
the Godhead bodily (Col. 2.9)," written by Mueller, Koehler, Luther, and
Paul, suffice to explain what I mean by "all of God" or "100%
of God" died on the cross.
However, why is the adjective "all" necessary to modify
"God," as if God needed a quantitative superlative to make Him extra
or extra, extra God? Alas, there are too many rationalists who imagine that
Christ is a percentage, fraction, or sliver of God, such as Doctor Waldo
Werning, "Jesus First," and the South Wisconsin District President.
They take offense when I insist that Jesus Christ is not one third of God
but "all of God." This is not a new problem. In order to silence the
opposition, the Nicene Creed was compelled to name Christ, "very God of
very God" because just plain "God" wasn't enough for the
heretics.
If we just believed the words: "Without controversy, great is the
mystery of godliness, that God was manifest in the flesh" (1Tim. 3:16) we
wouldn't need words like, "entire," "Totus Deus,"
"only" "whole God," "fullness of the Godhead,"
"very God of very God," or "all of God" or any deity
inflation. Just being "God" should be enough to explain that Christ
is not a third of God. However, this requires faith instead of Church Growth
Movement rationalism.
Werning promoted his "'Healthy Leaders for, Healthy Churches with,
Healthy Members, Discipling Workshop' On Saturday, March 16, 2002, 9:00 a.m. -
Noon at Lord of Glory Lutheran Church in Elk River MN." He explains a
"Healthy Church" without the correct teaching of the Trinity. Here
we have the odd comparison of a healthy church with a dead theology.
The Church Growth Movement, advocated by Doctor Werning, has invented its
own worship to agree with its own invention of god. In the past, similar
emotionalism and rationalism have brought us Mohammedanism, Mormonism,
Christian Science, Unitarianism, and Jehovah Witnesses, all of whom reject the
Trinity as explained in the Nicene Creed. Werning wants us to believe that
"very God of very God" means one third of God.
The following theologians answer Werning:
"Whoever comes in touch with the man Christ also comes in touch with
the Son of God. In fact, the whole Trinity is found in this Man."
(Luther's Works 22:346)
Again Luther writes: "And when you have Him, you are grasping the very
Son of God; and then you see and grasp God the Father Himself. The entire Holy
Trinity is known in the Person of Christ." (Luther's Works 23:89)
Augustine writes: "We must always discuss this subject, [the Trinity]
with the greatest and most outstanding humility and fear and listen with the
most attentive and devoted ears, when we are in search of the unity of the
Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; because at no other point
does one err with greater danger or seek with greater labor or find with
greater benefit." ("Loci Theologici" Cheminitz, CPH 1989 Page
65).
"The External Works of the Trinity Are Undivided. When God outside His
essence works something among His creatures, then the three Persons are
together and work together, because there is one order and maker."
("Loci Theologici" Cheminitz, Page 74).
Luther writes: "If I ascribe to each Person a distinct external work
in creation and exclude the other two Persons from this, then I have divided
the one Godhead and have fashioned three gods or creators. And that is wrong .
. . One must not separate the Persons with regard to the works and ascribe to
each its distinct external work; but now must . . . ascribe externally each
work to all three without distinction . . ." ("Loci Theologici"
Cheminitz, Page 74).
"And thus Gregory of Naziansus can say, 'That which acts is the one
essence common to the three Persons.' Therefore, just as the essence is one
and undivided, so the One who acts and does is One, and the work itself is one
and undivided" ("Loci Theologici" Cheminitz, Page 74).