On July 1, 2002, Reverend Doctor Waldo Werning sent a seven-page letter to
Dr. Wallace Schulz condemning Schulz's ruling in the Benke Case. He also
copied the LCMS Praesidium and the thirty-five-member Council of District
Presidents.
Werning also sent another 2-page letter to all of the above and a four-page
addendum condemning, "That We May Be One."
Reclaim News is now going to quote the
first three paragraphs of Werning's letter condemning Wallace Schulz as
follows:
Dear Brother in Christ - Vice President Schulz:
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
As a LCMS member who is strongly committed to the Word of God and to the
doctrine and practice of the LCMS as resolved in its Conventions and in
theological statements of fellowship, and as one who is negatively affected,
like all other members of the Synod, when improper actions are taken by
Synodical officials, I am writing this letter to you to protest your action
in suspending Atlantic District President David Benke. I am providing
evidence for my protest.
I am grieved and saddened by the harm done to Dr. Benke and the members
and congregations of the Synod by this faulty decision. My basic criticism
is that you obscure and fail to cite formal objective facts, evidence,
definitions, descriptions, statements of LCMS practice, criteria, and
primary sources, while you quote subjective opinions and allegations and
statements of complainants. At the same time, you claim that you made a
'thorough investigation.' My letter will show that you equate God's Word
with your personal opinions, and subjective allegations with formal
objective facts and evidence. Second-hand and third-hand testimonies of
complainants are given credence while God's Word is never quoted. I will
offer several analogies or comparisons or parallels to show that you have
only provided subjective opinions. I believe that these scenarios are an
equivalence of what you did in your one-page letter and seven page document.
One can be sure that when Werning sends an "attack letter" it
will be copies to numerous people.
When this writer pointed out the Trinitarian heresy in Werning's book,
"Health and Healing for the LCMS" Werning responded with 260 pages
of letters. Werning advised that I had no business criticizing his book. He
wrote:
"If you choose to read these fabrications by men who publicly disobey
God's Word, please first read Jer. 23: 21, 32; Heb. 5:4; 1 Peter 4:15, and Dr.
George Wollenburg's 1989 essay, 'Stick to Your Call,' which admonish
self-appointed church overseers seizing ecclesiastical power which God has not
granted them. Their destruction of Biblical authority with its Constitutional
limitations destroys the 'protection and maintenance of the rights' of every
pastor in Synod." (April 2, 2002)
However, as seen above, Werning has no problem justifying his own authority
to exercise ecclesiastical power and attempt correct Wallace Schulz.
Notice that Werning writes above about Schulz's ruling: "God's Word is
never quoted." However, on just a cursory examination of Schulz's ruling,
Schulz quotes 1 Timothy 3:16, Acts 17:11, Philippians 3:20-21, Matt. 18:15-16,
Matt. 18:15-16, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Acts 5:29, Matthew 16:27.
Also notice that Werning claims Schulz fails to use primary sources.
Evidently Werning doesn't consider a videotape of the entire worship service
at Yankee Stadium, the Holy Bible, the LCMS Constitution, the Lutheran
Confessions, Benke's own direct statements to Schulz as primary sources. We
must assume that Werning considers himself to be his own primary source.
It is impossible for Werning to be quoted without being slandered since he
doesn't agree with his own writing.
Could the Devil have found a better friend in misrepresenting the truth
than Waldo Werning and his cronies?