UOJ Stormtroopers Without Armor

LutherQuest (sic) prides itself on defending Universal Objective Justification - justification without faith, without the Means of Grace, without the Word. Now the denizens of that skunk patch are bickering among themselves about how the whole world is absolved (UOJ), which words work, and other confusions.

The UOJ line of reasoning comes from 1850 and later - for a good reason. All the major Lutheran groups in America came from the Pietistic era of the 19th century, except for the Muhlenberg tradition (General Synod, General Council, the ULCA, finally the LCA of 1962). The Muhlenberg tradition began in the earlier era of Pietism. His Ministerium of Pennsylvania began in 1748, while the Midwestern Lutherans came over about 100 years later.

The Augustana Synod was just merged into the LCA when I was confirmed. The Augustana Synod began in 1860. One of my jobs at the Augustana College Library was putting away bound copies of The Pietist, the journal which motivated Swedish Pietists to find freedom from persecution in America. Once here they became influenced by the Confessions and Confessional Lutherans like the Passavant.

The language being tossed around on LutherQuest (sic) is from Pietism. That is why they dare not delve into the Book of Concord, Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard, or the later orthodox Lutherans. Their distortions of Scripture come from their Pietistic assumptions.

I am working on this for a new book on justification. Sadly, Robert Preus repudiated UOJ in his last book but did not spell it out clearly enough for its addled followers. That is partly his fault. He was beating the drums for UOJ in the 1980s, repeating the Norwegian Pietistic arguments.

I know Augustana specifically argued against the Norwegians, even though both immigrant groups were equally influenced by Pietism. But Pietism had its varieties of expression. Norwegians and Swedes were used to opposing each other, too.

The Swedish Lutherans and Norwegian Lutherans modified their Pietism in America, grafting orthodoxy onto its earlier tradition, with limited success. Eventually the Pietistic side won out in both groups and threw aside orthodoxy. Pietism quickly morphs into Unitarianism, as we can see in the ELCA.

In a few words, UOJ is from the Pietism of the 19th century. The language and the doctrine can be traced to non-Lutheran sources. Walther was converted by a Pietist and never escaped Pietism, as he admitted. Walther is the chief source for UOJ, but his peculiar false doctrine took over the Missouri Synod and the old Synodical Conference rather fitfully. The false doctrine was not declared with Vatican-like certainty until the 1930 Brief Statement.

The Brief Statement is not in the Book of Concord.

As Mudslide used to say at Mequon, every anniversary of the Reformation is marred by some official anti-Lutheran act. Look at the date of the Brief Statement - 400 years after justification by faith was beautifully expressed by the Augsburg Confession, the clear phrases of Melanchthon were replaced by the Enthusiasm of Pietism.

The assault was repeated in 1987 with Theses on Justification, LCMS, blending justification by faith with UOJ. Supposedly Robert Preus had a hang in the 1987 assault. Preus had many fine qualities, but he was not an editor of the Book of Concord.