One cannot be a Lutheran and an Enthusiast.
People should read a few UOJ sermons to see how absurd they are.
Here is one from Atonement in Plano, Texas.
Pastor Gabb says everyone is forgiven. The statement of beliefs repeats this notion. The inept analogy in the sermon is having money put in the bank account of every single person in the world. S'funny how he misses a good analogy from the Book of Concord and Luther - treasure distributed by the Means of Grace. This congregation is teaching Universalism.
For example, if I told you that I put $25,000 into your bank account, I wouldn’t say, "If you believe I put $25,000 into your bank account, then it’s there. But if you don’t believe it, then it’s not there." Whether the money is in your bank or not is not based on whether you choose to believe it or not. I’ve complet-ed the transaction without your cooperation.
And so Jesus completed the work of salvation without our co-operation. Jesus said to more than one person whom we read about in the Bible, "Your sins are forgiven" (Mt 9.2). He didn’t say to those people, "If you believe that I paid for your sins then I paid for your sins." Justification is complete. You don’t have do anything to complete what Jesus started or cooperate with Jesus in some way to be forgiven.
On the other hand, it’s also true that we are "justified by faith," that is, the forgiveness is yours through faith in Jesus but does not benefit someone who does not believe in Jesus.
The name on the church says Atonement, but the pastor does not understand the Atonement. Texas is like that. Patterson's church is named Holy Word but he is smitten by Enthusiasm.
Here is Pastor Gabb on faith. Like most UOJ advocates, he contradicts his "everyone forgiven" sermon by repeating that people are sinful. Valleskey does the same thing in his wretched Church Growth textbook. Somehow Gabb talked about "Taking Care of Your Faith" without ever mentioning the Means of Grace. That is like talking about getting to the other side of the Mississippi without ever giving directions to the bridge across it.
(V 21-24). The word ‘justify’ means to declare someone inno-cent, not guilty. You are justified, not guilty of sin (Rom 8.33; 2 Cor 5.19). WE ARE JUSTIFIED means there is no charge of sin against us. When someone is accused of a crime and the judge declares that person to be justified, the accused is free to leave the judge’s courtroom, free to walk out the door and the judge will not stop that person and say, "I’m not done with you yet; your trial isn’t over yet." No, the judge is done; the trial is over; there is no crime, no offense. And so it is with God. There is no trial awaiting us because there is no sin that can or should condemn us. We are justified, free to walk out of this life through the door into eternal life in heaven.
Pastor Gabb worked faith into the sermon, but in the context of his UOJ pronouncements, that really meant little. The words in blue, above, are the typical UOJ court language. Everyone in the world was pronounced innocent, the moment Christ died on the cross, or the moment He rose from the dead. Perhaps the next WELS convention will vote on the Moment of Justification. Recently someone wrote me that Jesus declared everyone in the world forgiven the moment He left the tomb. I have not found that anywhere on my Bible software (BibleWorks) and I have the NIV.Faith is an appendage to Kokomo Justification, because they spend all their time on Universal Justification and cannot reconcile that with the Biblical doctrine. However, they try to weld the two together with disastrous results.
In my experience in reading such material, UOJ has always been accompanied by silence on the efficacy of the Word and almost total neglect of the Means of Grace. The troubles of WELS and the Lutheran Church in general can be attributed to their neglect of this excellent summary statement:
"The doctrine of the means of grace is a peculiar glory of Lutheran theology. To this central teaching it owes its sanity and strong appeal, its freedom from sectarian tendencies and morbid fanaticism, its coherence and practicalness, and its adaptation to men of every race and every degree of culture. The Lutheran Confessions bring out with great clearness the thought of the Reformers upon this subject."
"Grace, Means of," The Concordia Cyclopedia, L. Fuerbringer, Th. Engelder, P. E. Kretzmann, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927, J-101 p. 299.
