Reply To Elowsky: Apart From Jesus, there is no other God!"

Reply To Elowsky: Apart From Jesus, there is no other God!

By: Rev. Jack Cascione

Werning's questions about the Trinity have exposed a weakness, if not confusion, in the ranks of the LCMS clergy on the doctrine of the Trinity.

Reverend Earl Elowsky has taken exception with idea that each Person of the Trinity is all of God, yet there is only one God.

"Elowsky writes: 'One can only say: 'God died on the cross on God Friday. That is because of this Biblical truth: "Jesus is God. Jesus died on the cross. Therefore, God died on the cross' period. One may add the adjective 'true.' But Cascione errs in his statement. This error is almost as egregious as his equating the voters' assembly with the church.

In Reply to Elowsky:
My statement doesn't say that the Father is the Son, or the Son is the Holy Ghost, etc. It says, "each Person" (by Himself) is "all" of God, yet there is only one God.

I have only appealed to the first definition of "all" according to Merriam Webster's "New Collegiate Dictionary" (Second ed. 1949), which states "ALL" means "THE WHOLE OF." Yes, there are lots of other definitions of "all" in the Dictionary. However, Elowsky has no right to claim I mean any other definition than the first one, which is exactly what I wrote to the LCMS Board of Directors.

Only Jesus Christ died on the Cross: not the Father and not the Holy Spirit.

Only Jesus Christ was baptized: not the Father and not the Holy Spirit.

About the baptism of Jesus Luther writes: "You may say very correctly of the Dove: That is God, and there is no God beyond that one." LW15:304

"You may say very correctly of this Voice: That is God, and there is not God beyond that." LW 15:305 "You can say very correctly of the Man: That is God and there is no other God beside him." LW15:305

"However, it is also correct to say that God died for us, for the Son is God, and there is no other God but only more Persons in the same Godhead." LW:15:310 [No one can explain this.]

In reference to the word "all" meaning the "WHOLE OF" J. T Mueller writes: "Each person of the Godhead is the ENTIRE God (totus Deus), or that each Person has the WHOLE divine essence without division or multiplication. 'of these Persons each one is the WHOLE, God besides whom there is no other God. ' Luther" (J.T. Mueller "Christian Dogmatics" page 148)

According to Cassell's "New Latin Dictionary" (1960) "totus" means "WHOLE."

Pieper tells us that every person of the Trinity is FULLY God, not one third of God, yet there is only one God (Vol. I: 385, 386, 390, 405). Thus, we read in TLH hymn 154, verse 3, "When God the Mighty Maker died" not "When one third of God the Mighty Maker died!"

"That is to say, Scripture bears witness that the three persons and the ENTIRE Trinity are the one true God, and that each person is perfectly and in ALL respects that one true God." (Martin Chemnitz, "Loci Theologici" CPH 1989, Page 74, and 75)

Luther writes: "The ENTIRE Holy Trinity is known in the Person of Christ."
(LW 23:89)

Now if Elowsky or Werning don't like the word "all," even though I've restricted it to the first definition in Merriam Webster's Dictionary, will they accept that Jesus is the "ENTIRE," "WHOLE OF," "COMPLETE" God, apart from whom there is no other God, as Lutherans have always confessed about Jesus? Elowsky ridicules the very words used by Luther, Pieper, Chemnitz, Koehler, and J. T. Mueller.

It used to be that the word "God" meant the only God apart from whom there is no other God, but now we have Lutheran pastors who believe that calling Jesus "God" is not calling Him "ALL" of, the "WHOLE OF" or the "ENTIRE" God, but there are more parts left over. As Luther says, there can't be more of God outside of Christ, only more Persons.

In other words, Elowsky can't say with Luther and the Bible that Jesus is "the only God apart from whom there is no other God."

"Now, since He [Christ] is such a man as is super naturally one person with God, and apart from this man there is no God. . ." (Formula, Thor. Decl. VIII Par. 81 Of the Person of Christ Concordia Triglotta 1045)

"'Thus the Father is the one and only God (John 17:3); the Son is the one and only God (1 John 5:20); the Holy Ghost is the one and only God (Acts 5: 3-4). (Koehler "A Summary of Christian Doctrine" page 32)

The Athanasian Creed warns us not to divide the substance.

The Nicene Creed confesses: "God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God." They went a little farther Elowsky's limitation of one modifier "true."

We ask Elowsky, "What part of God did not die on the cross?"

Not only do we discover that Elowsky is confused that Walther's Voters' Assembly speaks for the church because voters are "church," he is also confused about the Trinity.

February 18, 2003