LCMS clergy don't agree on who God is

One of the sure marks that an entire church body is in decline is not its statistical loss, but its inability or lack of concern to maintain a unified public confession of God.

Reverend Doctor Werning not only sends his letters distorting the identity of God to officers of Redeemer Lutheran Church in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, but also to the President of the Synod; the Michigan District President; Dr. Arleigh Lutz, the Chairman of the LCMS Council of District Presidents; the South Wisconsin District President; and many more.

Werning refuses to say that, "Jesus was true God on the cross," that "God died on the cross" or that "God was buried in the tomb." He will call Jesus "The Son of God" but not "God." This is the same old Arian heresy and trash-talk about the Trinity.

Werning refuses to say, "Jesus is God!"

Yes, the Synod is concerned about growth, worship, and saving the lost, but not so much about God. It claims the sincere desire to gather more people by preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ but will not demand that its own clergy agree on the person of Christ or the Trinity. We want to say, "Jesus loves you" but we are not so interested in explaining who Jesus is.

Werning keeps sending more letters

On May 28, 2002, Dr. Waldo Werning sent two letters, the first is three pages and the second is four pages, all single-spaced. They are addressed to me and copied to sixteen LCMS officers and clergy. The following are quotations from these letters:

". . . your [Cascione's] 'All of God, not one third of God' distortion and heresy."

"Your irrational behavior is also seen in the fact that originally you accused me of denying God's Personhood and making God three activities (all of which you invented), but now you have changed the argument to your new invention about 'All of God, not one-third of God' dying on the Cross. Your mind cannot comprehend that the entire issue centers on the humanity and divinity of the second Person of the Godhead- a historical event in the history of the world, NOT THE ETERNAL CONDITION OF THE TRIUNE GOD."

"Yet you invent the heresy, 'All of God, not one-third of God, died on the Cross.'"

"You are wrong, for I do not argue, 'Jesus is not God on the Cross" and never have made that statement.'"

"You wrote another fabricated statement, 'No person of the Trinity can be just a part of God.' I hold to the three Creeds, not your silly inventions."

"Another statement which the Athanasian Creed settles, but you try to make a issue out of it, 'God cannot be divided or He is not God.' In that paragraph you seem to actually to deny the distinctive Persons of the Godhead."

On May 20, 2002 Werning wrote:

"Matt. 1:21 does not say that Mary will give birth to a son who is God the Father or is God the Holy Spirit, but a son who is Jesus."

"Your philosophical statement that all of God died on the Cross, not one third of god, not dividing God, literally not only denies the Personhood of the Godhead (Apostle's Creed), but denies the humanity of Jesus, and insists on making it appear that the Father and the Holy Spirit also become human and took human flesh. AT THE SAME TIME, YOUR MISINTERPRETATION LEADS TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE ETERNAL GOD WAS DEAD AND IN A GRAVE FOR THREE DAYS."

We reply to Doctor Werning

Answer the following questions Doctor Werning; "Is Jesus God on the Cross or a part of God?"

"In Christ, did God die on the Cross?"

"Was Jesus' blood God's blood on the cross or a part of God's blood?"

In the Communion cup, "Do we receive all of God's blood or a part of God's blood?"

Werning says he doesn't argue that Jesus is not God on the cross, but he simply will not say in the affirmative that Jesus is God on the cross. If Jesus is God on the cross, then God died and God was buried. Werning will not agree that God died and God was buried. Of course, if he says Jesus is God, then I will ask, "What part of God is He?"

Werning's claim above is heresy when he writes, ". . . the entire issue centers on the humanity and divinity of the second Person of the Godhead- a historical event in the history of the world, NOT THE ETERNAL CONDITION OF THE TRIUNE GOD." How can the historic birth of Christ not be about the eternal condition of the Triune God? I thought Jesus in the flesh is the second Person of the Trinity but not one third of God! What does Werning do with Luther's, "A Mighty Fortress" where Luther writes about Jesus, "and there is no other God?

Werning divides God like a nursery story into, "The Three Little Pigs," "Goldie Locks and the Three Bears" or "Three Men in a Tub." Werning writes the following trash-talk about God in his book on page 34:

1. "experiencing God in a three-fold manner."
2. "three manners of being (God above us, God among us, God in us),"
3. "three levels of reality (nature, history, existence)"
4. "three ways in which God reveals Himself"
5. "three forms of address [from God] ('You shall!,' 'You may!,' 'You can!')"
6. "one of the three ways in which God has revealed Himself"

Werning writes the above heresy and the South Wisconsin District President Ron Meyer endorses it.

Luther and Chemnitz on each of the persons of the trinity being all of God

Luther writes:

"As I was saying: 'The works of the Trinity to the outside are not divisible,' whatever is creature has been created by God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as one God. Still, the dove is called only Holy Spirit, or, as Luke says, it was only the Holy Spirit, who descended in the form of a dove. And the Christian Creed would by no means tolerate that you say of the dove: That is God the Father, or: That is God the Son. No, you must say: That is God the Holy Spirit, although God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are but one God. YOU MAY SAY VERY CORRECTLY OF THE DOVE: THAT IS GOD, AND THERE IS NO GOD BEYOND THAT ONE. And yet it would be incorrect for you to say: That is God the Father; that is God the Son. You must say: That is God the Holy Spirit.
Luther's Works Vol 15:304

"As a Christian you cannot say of the voice: That is God the Holy Spirit or that is God the Son. No, you must say: That is God the Father, although God the Holy Spirit and God the Son and God the Father are but one God. YOU MAY SAY VERY CORRECTLY OF THIS VOICE: THAT IS GOD, AND THERE IS NO GOD BEYOND THAT. But it would be incorrect to say: That is God the Son or God the Holy Spirit. No, you must say: That is God the Father.
15:305

"Of this Man you cannot say: That is God the Father or that is God the Holy Spirit; but you must say: That is God the Son, although God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, and although YOU CAN SAY VERY CORRECTLY OF THE MAN: THAT IS GOD, AND THERE IS NO OTHER GOD BESIDE HIM."
15:305

Chemnitz writes:

"For with respect to us the three persons are at the same time and each individually the one, true, undivided God, so that when the dove descended, one can correctly say that this is the one true God and beyond Him there is no other God, as it says in John 14:9, 'He who sees Me, sees My Father also. ' And again in v. 10, 'I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.' On this basis we can understand how the church directs its prayers sometimes to the Father, sometimes to the Son, and sometimes to the Holy Spirit. For it believes and confesses in its prayers not only that the three persons are the one true God, but that each person is not just a part of that one divine essence but rather is the entire divine essence, that is, the one true God, than whom there is no other God. For he who invokes one person above or beyond the others, as if that person were separate or individual, errs from the true God, as it is said in John 5:23, and John 8:54-55b."
Martin Chemnitz "Loci Theologici" Translated by J. A. O. Preus, CPH Vol. I page 74-76: Chemnitz is the author of the Formula of Concord and editor of the Book of Concord

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.

June 05, 2002