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NEWS RELEASE Date: 12 October 2009 ‑ For Immediate Release CCM Verax Information Service Title: ELCA / LWF Perpetuate Fallacies about “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” (JDDJ) BACKGROUND On Reformation Day (31 October) 1999, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) proclaimed to the world’s media that Lutherans and Roman Catholics had reached a consensus on the doctrine of justification by faith. With various shades of half-truths, the world’s media were led to believe:
To dispel these inaccuracies and fallacies, Dr. Heike Schmoll (female) of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), a leading German daily newspaper, spearheaded a public campaign against JDDJ by German professors of theology representing nearly every university in Germany. Due to Dr. Schmoll’s journalistic efforts, to two petition drives by the German theology professors, and to displeasure in the Vatican, the proposed signing of JDDJ collapsed in 1998. In a last ditch effort to save face, in 1999 the Lutheran World Federation secretly negotiated a substitute document with the Vatican. This substitute document, called the Official Common Statement (OCS), was actually signed in Augsburg, Germany, on 31 October 1999. In contrast to JDDJ, the OCS was not approved by any LWF member church. Dr. Schmoll is one of a few journalists worldwide to expose the reality regarding JDDJ (see below for an excerpt from Schmoll’s editorial “Halloween or Reformation?” dated 30 October 2004). CCM VERAX HELPS TO EXPOSE DECEPTIVE ECUMENISM OF ELCA / LWF Research recently published in LOGIA - A Journal of Lutheran Theology provides the most comprehensive and accurate exposé in English of the culture of ecumenical deception found in both the ELCA and the LWF. Research previously published in LOGIA and disseminated throughout the LWF has already led both to the ELCA and the LWF to retract false, ecumenical claims. Such fallacies sought to mislead Lutherans into believing that the Lutheran Reformers “deeply desired” to adopt Anglican/Episcopalian “Holy Orders” and “episcopal succession” for church unity. This recently published essay (click here for PDF), entitled “Ten Years after JDDJ the Ecumenical Pelagianism Continues,” LOGIA: A Journal of Lutheran Theology 18 (Holy Trinity 2009), 27‑45, reports the following (amongst other important topics):
MARTIN LUTHER AND THE REFORMATION In the course of 1517-1518, the young monk, Martin Luder, began to change the spelling of his name to Martin Luther to reflect the Greek word “eleutheros” meaning “free.” Like Luther, Lutherans believe that the truth will make one free (eleutheros) as John 8:31-37 attests. In sharp contrast, ELCA and LWF leaders seem to have difficulty with the simplest of facts. Unfortunately, their perpetuation of fallacies regarding the doctrine of justification, the doctrine by which the church stands or falls, means that such ELCA and LWF officials are at best nominally Lutheran. Which investigative religion reportor/editor will be Heike Schmoll’s counterpart in the English speaking world?
CCM Verax Information Service - Addendum Date: 12 October 2009 Excerpt from Heike Schmoll, “Halloween or Reformation?,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 30.10.2004, No. 254 / Page 1, translation by Mark D. Menacher “What is to be celebrated on the 31st of October? As of late, many children as well as adults answer: Halloween. For many weeks now, there have been large orange pumpkins, masks, and the like for sale, which the Americanized German needs for a Halloween party. As an act of capitulation to the Halloween cult, a Protestant pastor in Berlin has even offered a Halloween prayer service. Whether he will travel the path from Halloween to the actual originating moment of Protestantism, Reformation Day, will for the time being remain his secret. Even the Protestant (evangelisch) churches themselves are making every effort to steer away from the theological origin of Reformation festivities. Lately, the Lutheran churches have recommended that on October 31st their congregations celebrate ecumenical worship services, which may hardly take place on Sunday morning, even when a so-called “milestone” is to be celebrated. It should be recalled that five years ago in Augsburg [Germany] Lutherans and Catholics signed the “Official Common Statement,” which to a certain degree is the only accepted Roman Catholic interpretation of the so-called “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.” Despite all church claims, the Joint Declaration itself was never signed since the Roman Catholic Church rejected the text of the Declaration.” Title: Halloween order Reformation? Was wird am 31. Oktober gefeiert? Viele Kinder und wohl auch Erwachsene antworten darauf inzwischen: Halloween. Schon seit Wochen gibt es die großen orangen Kürbisse, Masken und alles das zu kaufen, was der sich selbst amerikanisierende Deutsche zur Halloween‑Party braucht. In Berlin hat ein evangelischer Pfarrer als Akt der Kapitulation vor dem Halloween‑Kult sogar eine Halloween‑Andacht angeboten. Ob er den Weg von Halloween zum eigentlichen Urdatum des Protestantismus, zum Reformationstag, geht, wird vorerst sein Geheimnis bleiben. Denn auch die evangelischen Kirchen selbst geben sich alle Mühe, vom theologischen Ursprung des Reformationsfestes abzulenken. Gerade haben die lutherischen Kirchen ihren Gemeinden empfohlen, am 31. Oktober ökumenische Gottesdienste zu feiern, die kaum am Sonntag vormittag stattfinden dürften, auch wenn ein sogenannter "Meilenstein" gefeiert werden soll. Denn vor fünf Jahren haben Lutheraner und Katholiken die "Gemeinsame Offizielle Feststellung", gewissermaßen die einzig akzeptierte römische Deutung der sogenannten "Gemeinsamen Erklärung zur Rechtfertigungslehre", in Augsburg unterzeichnet. Die Gemeinsame Erklärung selbst ist allen kirchlichen Behauptungen zum Trotz nie unterschrieben worden. Denn den Text der Erklärung hatte die römisch‑katholische Kirche zurückgewiesen. Editor:
Pastor
Mark D. Menacher, PhD, CCM Verax, PO Box 26 , Au Gres, MI 48703-0026 (USA) |