When Lutherans get worked up in promoting Universal Objective Justification, they usually mention Eduard Preuss with the kind of grin one reseves for porterhouse steak and Boston cream pie.
This Preuss was no relation to Robert and Jack Preuss.
Fuerbringer wrote about E. Preuss in his Eighty Eventful Years book about the LCMS. Preuss was one their 19th century orthodox professors, to use the term broadly and with great flexibility. One day he prayed that God would show him a sign about which church was true. He saw a brilliant red sunset and decided that meant he should be a Roman Catholic. He then published (anonymously) a book defending Roman Catholic doctrine. One person said, "First you defended Lutheran doctrine. Now you attack it. How can that be?" Preuss said, "Give me the documents and I can prove anything."
Obviously Preuss was an Enthusiast. He let his feelings of the moment sweep him into the embrace of Rome. An Enthusiast obtains salvation from outside the Word. Luther - all Lutherans - condemn Enthusiasm. This condemnation is found in the Book of Concord, the Smalcald Articles. God does not speak to us through sunsets and rainbows. The Holy Spirit does not say, "John, I know you want to stay in Ukraine, but I need you in Asia."
No one wrote more clearly about UOJ than Preuss. He is still mentioned today.
ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
