PCK has left a new comment on your post "UOJ and Church Growth Presentations, Disguised as...":
"GJ - Sorum is the WELS equivalent of Leonard Sweet. Valleskey is the Fuller-trained liberal who espouses UOJ and evangelism. Why bother? Everyone is forgiven and righteous, especially the guilt-free saints in Hell. (That's WELS doctrine, not Luther's.)"
I guess I just don't see how objective justification is that hard to understand. WELS certainly does not solely teach Objective Justification. There are passages such as 2 Corinthians 5:19: "that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them." When Paul uses the word "world", is he referring only to those who believe? I can't say he does. He must mean that the whole world was reconciled to God through Christ payment on the cross. Through that payment God is not counting their sins against them.
Consider Jesus' final words on the cross "It is finished." What is finished? His work of paying for the sins of the world...that is what is finished. His complete payment, his perfect sacrifice is finished. God the Father was pleased and appeased. His anger over sin subsided. His payment was perfect.
Consider Romans 3:23-24: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Note that the Greek word for justified is a present passive participle, nominative masculine plural. What modifies it? That's right, all, the Greek word pantes,in verse 23 which happens to be a nominative masculine plural pronoun. Therefore all have sinned (no one can be excluded) but also all have been justified, declared not guilty, through the redemption, the buying back from sin that came by Christ Jesus.
While this is true, that Christ paid for the sins of the whole world, this gift is not automatically given to all people. People are not automatically saved. That is where subjective justification comes in. You have passages such as John 3:16-18: "John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." From this passage, this forgiveness and eternal life only comes through faith, the organon leptikon, the receiving hand given to us by God through which we receive Christ's blessings.
Consider Ephesians 2:8-9. For it is by grace you have been saved (we have been saved through God's undeserved love, as seen through his perfect sacrifice on the cross) through faith (however, this salvation through God's grace, displayed in Christ on the cross, is only ours through faith.)
Christ did pay for the sins of the entire world, but unless that blessing is received through faith, it is of no value to the unbeliever. It is a gift they reject. And due to their rejection they are condemned to hell. It is only through faith that Christ's complete payment for the sins of the world is credited to man.
If you plan on posting this, please post the whole thing, and not bits and pieces. Thank you.
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GJ - This guy has pluck, posting anonymously and telling me how to use the comment. I copied it verbatim.
I am not going to argue Greek grammar on a blog aimed at everyone. I quoted Lenski before, and all other Greek exegetes agree with him - justification in the New Testament is justification by faith alone. The same can be said about justification in the Book of Concord: justification by faith.
Robert Preus was clear about this in his last book. I quoted him on the subject. He also quoted theologians who have been paraded as UOJ advocates, deceptively so, I might add.
Reconciliation is not justification. I wrote a chapter on this, so everyone can read that. It is linked on this page - and my name is on the book. I do not have to defend the truth anonymously.
Let me give one little example that destroys UOJ. "Abraham believed and it was reckoned as righteousness." What did Abraham believe and when? He believed in the coming Messiah, long before the Atonement. He was justified by faith, Paul's inspired doctrine in Romans 4. How could he have righteousness before the Brief Statement Moment of Absolution? UOJ contradicts itself consistently.
Let us look at the Moment of Absolution itself, which varies by three Jewish days. For some, it happened when Christ died. For others, it happened when Christ rose from the dead. If God declared the entire world righteous, then where is that Word of Universal Salvation. The ELS partner of WELS says the world was saved.
I would like to see one Scripture passage or one Book of Concord passage where the entire world is forgiven of its sin, without faith, without the Word, without the Means of Grace.
UOJ emerged from Pietism in the 19th century, as its advocates must admit. UOJ is new. UOJ is not Christian.
