Gerhard Forde denies Gospel – "corrupt tree", attacks Vicarious Satisfaction (Part 1 of 2)

[2019-12-15: added note on Kilcrease at bottom in red.]

Who is Gerhard O. Forde? († 2005)

      As Wikipedia reports, he was a pastor and professor in the American Lutheran Church and the later ELCA. 

What did Prof. Forde teach?  

      One needs to read no further than the following statement from his 1990 popular book Theology is for Proclamation, p. 119, under subsection "Atonement Theories":

“…theological theories about atonement do not bring about actual reconciliation. A construct, for instance, like vicarious satisfaction, taken to mean that God in the abstract is somehow moved objectively to change from an attitude of wrath to one of mercy or love by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, always creates more problems than it solves.” (emphases mine)

Essentially Prof. Forde taught that the "vicarious satisfaction" worked by Christ on the cross was, in his own words, a "theological theory", a "construct" which "creates more problems than it solves".  —  I remember very well reading Franz Pieper's Christian Dogmatics as I was returning to my Christian faith, how those terms "vicarious" ("substitutionary"), and "satisfaction" (the effect of appeasing God's wrath against all the sins of all men), translated me into heaven.  It perfectly summarizes the Gospel as found in 2 Cor. 5:19 and many other passages.

      Prof. Forde also taught on many other theological subjects in his writings.  But Christ said:

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,
            neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Matt. 7:18

Prof. Forde's theology is a "corrupt tree", because it calls the Scriptural Gospel a "construct", a "theory" that "creates problems".  To question the Gospel as a teacher is more dangerous than an outright denial of it, for it can deceive those weak in the faith. All of his theology, therefore, whatever he teaches with this "theology", is suspect or confusing at best, faith destroying at worst. — 

      I am certainly not the only one warning against Forde's apostatizing doctrine against the Gospel:

(1) Prof. Kurt Marquart († 2006), in his 1977 book Anatomy of an Explosion ($4.99), compares Forde with German theologian J.C.K. von Hofmann:

• p. 39: "Von Hofmann, who replaced both inspiration and the atonement with a curious 'Law/Gospel' brew of his own, is today being rediscovered by anti-traditional Lutherans in America." [i.e. Forde]
• p. 101: "Both Walther and Pieper, as we have seen, protested most vigorously against… von Hofmann, who denied not only verbal inspiration, but even Christ’s sub­stitutionary atonement. Hofmann’s radically unorthodox approach was recently, and most warmly, again commended by ALC theologian Gerhard Forde!"

(2) Dr. Jack Kilcrease, (*) in his 2012 CTQ essay "Gerhard Forde's Theology of Atonement and Justification: A Confessional Lutheran Response", presents a scholarly review of Forde's theology, with warnings:

• p. 282: "Forde's rejection of the confessional Lutheran understanding of atonement also causes a significant deviation from the historic Lutheran teaching regarding justification."
• p. 284: Forde's "description of justification is in total disagreement with the confessional and biblical authorities".
• p. 285: Forde "considers the idea of vicarious satisfaction to represent a mere 'abstract payment'".
• p. 286: "Forde quite specifically attacks the idea of a purely forensic justification".

According to the 2019 LCMS Convention Workbook, p. 95, Dr. Kilcrease is on the LCMS CTCR commission until 2022.

       OK, so it is agreed that the theology of Gerhard Forde is very dangerous and should be avoided at all costs among Lutherans… right?  This is true even when Forde's theology is common today, even in external Lutheranism.  Forde's theology is not even worthy of reporting on this blog – the world is filled with his "corrupt tree" theology.  So why do I make a point of it?  Oh, but it is not so in today's LCMS.  That Forde's theology is boldly taught in today's LC-MS (also Dr. Kilcrease's synod) is demonstrated in the next Part 2.
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2019-12-15: Dr. Kilcrease has added 2 more items to his defense of "substitutionary Atonement": (1) his 2018 book The Doctrine of Atonement: From Luther to Forde (Wipf & Stock, 2018); and (2) his 2018 CTQ essay "Johann Gerhard, the Socinians, and Modern Rejections of Substitutionary Atonement". Both give a scholarly review of even more erring modern theologians and a generally good defense of the "substitutionary atonement".