The UOJ Stormtrooopers love to toss this stinkbomb into any discussion about justification by faith:
"You are making faith a work."
Little do they realize that their favorite UOJ salesmen do, in fact, make faith a work.
"Objectively speaking, without any reference to an individual sinner's attitude toward Christ's sacrifice, purely on the basis of God's verdict, every sinner, whether he knows about it or not, whether he believes it or not, has received the status of a saint. What will be his reaction when he is informed about this turn of events? Will he accept, or will he decline?" J. P. Meyer, Ministers of Christ, A Commentary on the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1963, p. 103f. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.
J. P. Meyer is the key to understanding how WELS became so enamored of Babtist Church Growth leaders. In seminary, they read Babtist authors, drooling on the pages. In congregations, they lead adult studies of Babtist works. In their continuing education they run off to hear the same Babtist leaders -- live! -- that their seminary professors love so dearly.
The formula above is almost identical to a Babtist decision for Christ.
1. Tell them the Gospel.
2. Ask them to make a decision for Christ. Will they accept Him or not?
The UOJ salesmen rail against faith, but they end up with saying, "But you gotta believe." Sports fans, friends and neighbors, gotta means must, and "must" means the Law. That turns faith into a work of man. Forgiveness is already true but it is not really true until you perform this one act - you gotta believe it is true. That is the doctrine of the Syn Conference, reason enough to follow the Babtists and Pentecostals to perdition.
copied UOJ from George Christian Knapp, a Halle Pietist.
C. F. W. Walther pulled the wool over the sheepish eyes of the Syn Conference, the same way. In a sermon so beloved by the Little Sect that they reprinted it lovingly in one of their best-selling books -- over 37 sold! -- the ELS quoted the entire sermon.
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"For God has already forgiven you your sins 1800 years ago when He in Christ absolved all men by raising Him after He first had gone into bitter death for them. Only one thing remains on your part so that you also possess the gift. This one thing is—faith. And this brings me to the second part of today's Easter message, in which I now would show you that every man who wants to be saved must accept by faith the general absolution, pronounced 1800 years ago, as an absolution spoken individually to him."
C. F. W. Walther, The Word of His Grace, Sermon Selections, "Christ's Resurrection—The World's Absolution" Lake Mills: Graphic Publishing Company, 1978, p. 233. Mark 16:1-8.
Pastors, you wrote in your notes from dog class - "best theol. in Am." Can you say that after reading such Calvino-Babtist drivel?
There are Calvinist Babtists and Free Will Babtists. They start with the Enthusiasm of Calvin, the Holy Spirit separated from the Word of God. Some fall on the double-predestination side while others land on the Arminian side. (Memory note - The Kardashians are Armenians. Think of something to distinguish one from the other. No, not that.)
How did Lutherans listen to Walther without laughing out loud? They were living in the last days of Pietism, remembering how Pietism once devoted itself to Biblical study, prayer, relief efforts, and missionary goals. Pietism began as a unionistic endeavor in a unionistic culture. By Walther's time, Halle was rationalistic and Knapp was old-fashioned, the one dinosaur on the faculty who still believed. Therefore, Knapp's double-justification had the aura of the Good Old Days, and his book was a pan-denominational best-seller, still in print today.
Sound Doctrine
Christ has indeed accomplished everything for our sakes. He has died for the sins of the world. He has redeemed the world. But nothing in the Word of God says that we are declared forgiven without the Word, without the Means of Grace, without faith.
The preaching and teaching of the Gospel distributes the treasure of the Gospel and plants faith in the hearts of those who hear the Word. Thus faith is God's work which receives what God offers so freely. Therefore, we are justified by faith, apart from the works of the Law.
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"These treasures are offered us by the Holy Ghost in the promise of the holy Gospel; and faith alone is the only means by which we lay hold upon, accept, and apply, and appropriate them to ourselves. This faith is a gift of God, by which we truly learn to know Christ, our Redeemer, in the Word of the Gospel, and trust in Him, that for the sake of His obedience alone we have the forgiveness of sins by grace, are regarded as godly and righteous by God the Father, and are eternally saved."
Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration, III. #10. Of the Righteousness of Faith before God. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 919. Tappert, p. 541. Heiser, p. 250.
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"Accordingly, the word justify here means to declare righteous and free from sins, and to absolve one from eternal punishment for the sake of Christ's righteousness, which is imputed by God to faith, Philippians 3:9. For this use and understanding of this word is common in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. Proverbs 17:15: He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Isaiah 5:23: Woe unto them which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Romans 8:33: Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, that is, absolves from sins and acquits."
Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration, III. #17. Of the Righteousness of Faith before God. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 921. Philippians 3:9; Proverbs 17:15; Isaiah 5:23; Romans 8:33. Tappert, p. 541f. Heiser, p. 251.
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"For when man is justified through faith [which the Holy Ghost alone works], this is truly a regeneration, because from a child of wrath he becomes a child of God, and thus is transferred from death to life, as it is written; When we were dead in sins, He hath quickened us together with Christ, Ephesians 2:5. Likewise: The just shall live by faith, Romans 1:17; Habakkuk 2:4."
Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration, III. #20. Of the Righteousness of Faith before God. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 921. Tappert, p. 542. Heiser, p. 251.
