Lutherans as cultists
Meanwhile, over at TheoMony , our friend Mr. Abanes continues to slander those who hold a quia subscription to the Lutheran Confessions.
Subscribing to the Confessions quia, for the uninitiated, means subscribing to them because they are a correct exposition of Scripture. This is usually contrasted with subscribing quatenus, i.e., insofar as they are a correct exposition of Scripture.
Because quatenus subscription doesn't specify exactly how far "insofar" is, it's essentially meaningless. The most orthodox of Lutherans, for example, could in entirely good conscience subscribe quatenus to the Koran , the Book of Mormon, the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Mein Kampf , The Communist Manifesto, Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, The Satanic Bible, and the Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul al Hazred- and all at the same time! To subscribe quatenus to a document is not in any real sense to subscribe to it at all!
Quatenus is the way they subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions in the ELCA. I'm sure that Mr. Abanes would have no problem with that.
Of course, neither would Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, Pope Leo X, or Pelagius- any of whom could have subscribed quatenus to the Lutheran Confessions with exactly the same amount of integrity as does the ELCA.
Subscribing to the Confessions quia, for the uninitiated, means subscribing to them because they are a correct exposition of Scripture. This is usually contrasted with subscribing quatenus, i.e., insofar as they are a correct exposition of Scripture.
Because quatenus subscription doesn't specify exactly how far "insofar" is, it's essentially meaningless. The most orthodox of Lutherans, for example, could in entirely good conscience subscribe quatenus to the Koran , the Book of Mormon, the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Mein Kampf , The Communist Manifesto, Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, The Satanic Bible, and the Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul al Hazred- and all at the same time! To subscribe quatenus to a document is not in any real sense to subscribe to it at all!
Quatenus is the way they subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions in the ELCA. I'm sure that Mr. Abanes would have no problem with that.
Of course, neither would Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, Pope Leo X, or Pelagius- any of whom could have subscribed quatenus to the Lutheran Confessions with exactly the same amount of integrity as does the ELCA.
Comments
Correction made!