Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Errorists Verbatim":
J-568
I think I actually agree with this quote above, because since you have been blogging about UOJ, I have found myself wondering if I am indeed forgiven. It has caused me confusion.
You are truly at you best when you teach the gospel. Since I cannot seem to grasp the difference of what you are saying: basically that Christ atoned for the sins of all the world, yet didn't forgive them, and then still quoting Walther with J-564 (about having to accept BY FAITH this atonement) and equating it with decision theology, is simply mind boggling. Knowing that even a child can profess true faith in Christ makes me wonder what this pithy discussion is really all about.
Walther's quote, to me is completely different than decision theology. You say it is "close" to it though. This is like saying that because you cannot comprehend how someone could be forgiven, yet not lay hold of that forgiveness, makes you a rationalist and on the very edge of being a Historical Criticism advocate. Followed to it's logical conclusion, does it not? Many things in scripture we do not understand, yet we trust in.
I am not sure about much, but I am sure that according to the Gospel of Mark...."He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe, stands condemned already."
You have much to write that is good, simple and accurate. You are at your best with the Gospel. I will read what is easily understood and eliminate the UOJ reading for someone with an IQ of 140 + who can actually explain it without obfuscation or confusion.
Thanks,
JLB
***
Here is the entire chapter on UOJ and Justification by Faith, from Thy Strong Word. The fake Ichabod erased the link from one comment, but I am only too happy to show what UOJ really teaches.
I created the J-numbers so I could keep track of my citations, and so the readers could find them again easily.
J-568
"The chief purpose, however, is to keep this article (general justification) before the people for its own sake. It cannot be presented and studied too often. Its vital relation to the subjective, personal justification by faith, cannot be stressed too strongly. It forms the basis of the justification by faith and keeps this article free from the leaven of Pelagianism. Unless the sinner knows that his justification is already an accomplished fact in the forum of God, he will imagine that it is his faith, his good conduct, which moves God to forgive him his sins. And unless he knows that God had him personally in mind in issuing the general pardon on Easter morning, he will have no assurance of his justification."
Theodore Engelder, Concordia Theological Monthly, July/August/September, 1933. Reissued by the seminary print-shop, Ft. Wayne, 1981. Cited by Pastor Vernon Harley, "Synergism—Its Logical Association with General Justification," 511 Tilden, Fairmont, Minnesota 56031, August, 1984, p. 1f.
The quotation cited does not seem wrong, as a stand-alone statement. But the next statement from the same article, clarifies what Engelder really meant:
J-569
"The entire Pauline doctrine of justification stands and falls with the special article of general justification. This establishes it beyond peradventure that justification is entirely independent of the conduct of man. And only in this way the individual can have the assurance of his justification. For it is the incontrovertible conclusion: Since God has already justified all men in Christ and forgiven them their sins, I, too, have a gracious God in Christ and forgiveness of all my sins."
Quoted with approval by Theodore Engelder, from George Stoeckhardt, Commentary on Romans, p. 264. Cited by Pastor Vernon Harley, "Synergism—Its Logical Association with General Justification," 511 Tilden, Fairmont, Minnesota 56031, August, 1984, p. 2.
In the Scriptures we have to look at what a word means in its context. Just as in English, some Biblical words are completely different in another context. I defy anyone to give one meaning for draw. For example, drawn butter may be a picture or something to put on lobster. I might say as a pun, when someone has a pencil sketch done of himself, "You look drawn."
However, the Bible, Luther, the Book of Concord, Melanchthon, Chemnitz, and others (Calov, according to R. Preus) use the term justification only in the sense of justification by faith.
The UOJ authors, who wrote subsequent to Burk and Knapp, and came from Pietistic circles, all used this peculiar term general justification to mean that every single person in the world has been declared forgiven, guilt-free. We say general, but the German word is allgemeine, which is all inclusive - Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Charles Manson, and Karl Marx. So universal is a good translation of the German word allgemeine. Allgemeine Wehrpflicht means compulsory military service, which we would call Universal Military Training.
My numerous posts on UOJ have sought to show that Biblical doctrine distinguishes between Christ dying for the sins of the world, an objective truth, and the efficacious Gospel--the message of the Atonement--producing that faith which embraces this truth in each individual who believes, from the baptized baby to the person converted on his deathbed. The Word of the Gospel produces and sustains this faith.
The Atonement is not the "absolution of the entire world," even if the WELS Conference of Pussycats still think so. There are no "guilt-free saints in Hell," even if the author of that blasphemy continued to teach at Mequon until he was fossilized.
I am sympathetic about your confusion. It took me a long time to untangle UOJ and a few of us are still working on the riddle.
I suggest sticking with the clear teachings of the Scriptures and the exposition found in the Book of Concord, the finest (and most neglected) one-volume commentary on the Bible to be found. Here is my favorite clarification of the issue:
J-590
"For neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ, or believe on Him, and obtain Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Ghost through the preaching of the Gospel. The work is done and accomplished; for Christ has acquired and gained the treasure for us by His suffering, death, resurrection, etc. But if the work remained concealed so that no one knew of it, then it would be in vain and lost. That this treasure, therefore, might not lie buried, but be appropriated and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to go forth and be proclaimed, in which He gives the Holy Ghost to bring this treasure home and appropriate it to us. Therefore sanctifying is nothing else than bringing us to Christ to receive this good, to which we could not attain ourselves."
The Large Catechism, The Creed, Article III, #38, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 689. Tappert, p. 415. Heiser, p. 194.
