Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Twenty-Seventh Sunday after Trinity":
Beautiful sermon Pastor GJ! I have a question. "The invitations of the marriage feast were sent out again and again, the humblest gathered to fill the halls. The great, noble, learned, and foolish are too busy, too important, or too hedonistic to accept the gracious invitation."
Is this what some pastors may be expressing when using the "free turkeys at the supermarket" analagy? Both you and Brett called this synergism. Perhaps I am missing someting. I would appreciate some help. Thank you.
In Christ,
from WELS church lady
***
GJ - That is a good question. First of all I would say that the original Gospel messages get converted into secular analogies that do not fit. I have heard UOJ defended thus:
1. Everyone is in a prison cell but the door is not locked (universal forgiveness).
2. Money is placed in every single bank account but not always realized.
3. Poultry day is announced at the grocery store - everyone gets a free goose (your example).
4. Someone inherits a vast estate, but it has to be claimed (attributed to Luther).
The comparison I used was from the Scriptures, the invitation to the marriage feast. The invitation is the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel Promises. Christ has indeed died for the sins of the world, an objective truth whether anyone believes it or not. However, the righteousness He has earned is not imputed except through faith.
The free poultry analogy is loaded with traps. First of all, it suggests that we seek Christ or cooperate (synergism). Not so - Christ goes looking for us (Luke 15) and rejoices with His angels over one lost sinner found. The poultry analogy is used to claim everyone is already forgiven, without faith, without the Word, without the Means of Grace.
Jesus has many examples to show how people receive the Gospel invitation but turn away - have to test-drive my oxen, just got married, gotta big funeral. Another set of comparisons is found in Mark 4/Matthew 13 in the Parable of the Sower. The sowing of the Word is universal, but various complications lead to no yield in three circumstances, overwhelming results in another.
Luther emphasized two aspects of Christian doctrine - the efficacy of the Word and the Means of Grace. Both are missing in UOJ.
---
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Church Lady Question":
Rev. Jackson, does the following properly express what you are saying?
Christ conquered sin, death and the Devil on the cross for all and for all time. This fact is there for all in the Word, and has absolutely nothing to do with any action on the part of man in order to be true.
This conquering of sin, death and the Devil by Christ, comes to you and to me only by Grace, through Faith, which Faith, likewise comes only by The Holy Spirit through the Word.
***
GJ - Yes, that is another way of stating what is expressed by Luther in the treasure analogy. The Atonement is the treasure but it lies in one heap until it is distributed by the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the Word.
The UOJ Stormtroopers parrot their favorite little sentence in The Brief Statement, which has no basis in the Scriptures or Confessions: "Scripture teaches that God has already declared the whole world to be righteous in Christ, Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:18-21; Rom. 4:25..."
The UOJ fanatics cannot deal with Robert Preus' basic statements and quotations in Justification and Rome. To do so would be admitting that Missouri - gasp - was fallible, that J. P. Meyer and Sig Becker - double-gasp - erred in their Human Natures.
