District Officials Support Werning's False Doctrine About Trinity
By Rev. Jack Cascione

 

South Wisconsin District President, Ron Meyer, Vice President Paul Borgman, and Circuit 22 Counselor Ronald Krug have all signed letters publicly supporting Dr. Waldo Werning's doctrine of the Trinity as stated on pages 33 and 34 of Werning's book, "Healing and Health For the LCMS." Werning's book was endorsed in the June issue of "Jesus First." In his book, Werning endorses "Jesus First," "PLI," and "Day Star" as helping to supply healing and health to the LCMS.

President Meyer writes: "In contrast to the inaccurate and hurtful statements and suggestions made concerning Dr. Waldo Werning's Trinitarian theology, it is my duty and privilege, hereby, to affirm the clearly stated, Lutheran position of Dr. Werning on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as heard by my own ears when he confessed to me his Athanasian understanding of the Trinity and as read by my own eyes in Werning's writings."

Vice President Borgman writes: "First, I find no basis for the charges. In your book and in our discussion, you clearly use the term "Person (not 'mode ') when referring to the 'Persons of the Trinity' (pp. 32-34). . . Second it appears to me that Pastor Cascione in Reclaim News has taken your comments out of context, and he jumps to unwarranted conclusions."

Circuit Counselor Krug writes: "Rev. Werning's description of the Trinity is the same as any Lutheran Pastor's would be in a confirmation class. It is beyond my understanding how Pastor Cascione can so blatantly slander Rev. Werning's reputation and still call himself a spiritual leader."

Here we have the classic double standard. These District Officers accuse me of breaking the Eighth Commandment because I didn't speak to Werning privately about my concerns. However, Werning writes a book, with me as the primary villain in more than 131 citations, excoriates nearly everything about me and sends it to every convention delegate with no conversation with me. Rather than complain about what was said about me, I point out Werning' s false doctrine about the Trinity in the book, and they accuse me of breaking the Eighth Commandment. Not one of these officers asked me anything about what I said or why I said it, but they all conclude after talking with one party in the dispute that Werning is correct and I am wrong.

Luther points out that when the false doctrine is in print and public, there is no need to consult the other party.

What is a tragic loss here is not the Eighth Commandment, but three more LCMS pastors agreeing with and supporting Werning's false doctrine. They are more concerned about Werning than telling the truth about the Trinity.

I have no doubt that Werning met with them and told them the correct statements on the Athanasian Creed. However, this does not remove the false doctrine from his book!

I phoned all three District officials and asked them if they supported Werning's statements in his book about the Trinity, and they all refused to answer me. So much for bold confession!

However, Pastor Borgman said, I was putting a spin on Werning's words. He also said that no matter how I quoted Werning, it would always be a spin. By his own definition Borgman can never be wrong.

I kept asking President Meyer, the chief Synodical officer and doctrinal supervisor of the South Wisconsin District if he believed, that "God REVEALED Himself in three WAYS," according to Werning's book. At first, he said yes. Then when I said there never were three revelations of God, but "God in three persons" then he agreed with that and rejected his first statement.

I don't know what kind of god these pastors worship, but my God hasn't "revealed himself in three ways." He doesn't have, "three forms of address," "three level's of reality" or "three manner's of being." No one is "experiencing God in a three-fold MANNER." This is total modalism!

The Athanasian Creed says: "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic [i.e., universal, Christian] faith. Which faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly."

"Undefiled" means they are not to confess the Creed and then endorse something that denies the Creed like these pastors are doing.

These pastors are endorsing damnation of souls when they endorse Werning's doctrine of the Trinity. It is impossible to agree with the Athanasian Creed and Werning's writings about the Trinity because they are mutually exclusive. The Athanasian Creed says, "And the catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, Neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance." "Confounding" means confusing the teaching about the Trinity. Where does the Bible teach "experiencing God in a three-fold MANNER?"

Which of them is able to, " . . . experience Christ as Savior through prayer?" They may accuse of me of breaking the Eighth Commandment but they have lied to the church about God in order to please Werning. They have broken their ordinations vows. I expect many more in the South Wisconsin District to follow their example.

Werning is charging me in Dispute Resolution and is using their letters to defend his writing and I intend to charge these three men in the same forum and challenge them to defend Werning's writings on the Trinity which is false doctrine.


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.

July 11, 2001