from 1850 on.
From Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant (second edition):
However, Preus clarified the true meaning of justification in his final book, Justification and Rome, which was published posthumously. Preus wrote this definitive comment:
"But the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the sinner takes place when the Holy Spirit brings him to faith through Baptism and the Word of the Gospel. Our sins were imputed to Christ at His suffering and death, imputed objectively after He, by His active and passive obedience, fulfilled and procured all righteousness for us. But the imputation of His righteousness to us takes place when we are brought to faith."
Preus immediately followed the statement above with a quotation from Quenstedt, one of his favorite orthodox Lutheran authors:
It is not just the same thing to say, “Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us” and to say “Christ is our righteousness.” For the imputation did not take place when Christ became our righteousness. The righteousness of Christ is the effect of His office. The imputation is the application of the effect of His office. The one, however, does not do away with the other. Christ is our righteousness effectively when He justifies us. His righteousness is ours objectively because our faith rests in Him. His righteousness is ours formally in that His righteousness is imputed to us.
Preus also quoted Abraham Calov with approval:
"Although Christ has acquired for us the remission of sins, justification, and sonship, God just the same does not justify us prior to our faith. Nor do we become God's children in Christ in such a way that justification in the mind of God takes place before we believe."
Original LCMS Catechism, 1905:
Justification by faith, in the original sense, was taught in the official catechism of the Missouri Synod, and then was gradually changed:
#305 Why do you say in this article: I believe in the Forgiveness of Sins? Because I hold with certainty that by my own powers or through my own works I cannot be justified before God, but that the forgiveness of sins is given me out of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also true justification. Psalm 130:3-4; Psalm 143:2; Isaiah 64:6; Job 25:4-6 (Q. 124).
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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Has Robert Preus' Last Book Been Forgotten?":
An excellent article to read is H.A. Preus' The Justification Of The World. He wrote it in defense of Universal Objective Justification (UOJ)as president of the Norwegian Synod in 1874. It is a great example of how UOJ destroy's the nature, essence and true function of the Holy Spirit's faith which He works in all true Christians by Word and Sacrament alone. UOJ is a new gospel that is completely opposed to the Biblical Gospel of the promise of forgiveness of sins through faith alone in Christ. Romans 10:3, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
Preface is by Pastor Rolf Preus who is one of the defenders of UOJ on Luther Qwest.
http://www.christforus.org/Papers/Content/HermanAmbergPreusonJustificationofWorld.htm
In Christ,
Brett Meyer
Philippians 3:9, "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:"
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GJ - Rolf (son of Robert, nephew of Jack, father of a tribe, banned at The Surrendered Fort) has been all over the map on justification. He always land back in UOJ Stormtrooper-land. Robert clearly repudiated justification without faith in his last book.
Many younger laymen are beginning to see that UOJ is nonsense. Some pastors realize it too, but they keep their mouths shut.
