KJV Luke 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at Thy Word I will let down the net. 6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. 7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that theybegan to sink.
Garrett has left a new comment on your post "Compare and Contrast - On Justification":
Indirectly addressed to Teh ANGREH mlc student(?) loroffpj:
Reading about theology and perusing this blog just makes me wish all the more that MLC freshmen would get a real doctrine class sooner rather than later. Students are both very impressionable but also (as visible ambassadors of Christ) give big impressions. Why must they wait three years to finally read in their doctrine textbook...? :
God desires the salvation of all sinners. Because of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, God justified the whole world. Yet not all people will be saved. The reason for this is contained in Jesus' words: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mk 16:16). Through faith, sinners receive the benefit of the redemptive work of Christ (Jn 3:16; Mk 16:16; Ac 16:31; Ro 3:22,28; 4:5). Our dogmaticians have called faith the "receiving instrument" (greek: organon leptikon) in distinction to the gospel, which is the instrument God uses to give faith, the "giving instrument" (Greek: organon dotikon). Lange, Lyle W. God So Loved the World. (C) 2005 by NPH. Chapter 16: Justification, pg 348.
Even better, and more concise, just take a look in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration III:13.
"For faith does not make people righteous because it is such a good work or such a fine virtue, but because it lays hold of and accepts the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy gospel. For this merit must be applied to us and appropriated through faith if we are to become righteous through it."
Read up on everything. Challenge it. Search the scriptures and consult the Lutheran Confessions. You'll be surprised. I was.
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GJ - College should be a time to exercise critical thinking rather than engage in repeat-after-me talking points from the synod PR department.
Lange's OJ, a regurgitation of the Synodical Conference fundamental error, is another example of the blind leading the blind. As one church worker's son has said, "The Wisconsin Synod has lost the Gospel."
"Because of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, God justified the whole world." - Lange
Where is this Kokomo/Brief Statement revelation located? Not in Romans 4, which teaches only justification by faith. Anyone can see the deceit in the UOJ Stormtroopers when they extract their precious doctrine from a justification by faith sentence:
KJV Romans 4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
That repudiation of UOJ is immediately followed by:
KJV Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Examining the Biblical claims of WELS/ELS/LCMS will show that they do not even acknowledge the efficacy of the Word. The entire "conservative" wing of Lutherdom is sunk in Enthusiasm, separating the Holy Spirit from the Word.
The Smalcald Articles are very good about this.
3] And in those things which concern the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one, except through or with the preceding outward Word, in order that we may [thus] be protected against the enthusiasts, i.e., spirits who boast that they have the Spirit without and before the Word, and accordingly judge Scripture or the spoken Word, and explain and stretch it at their pleasure, as Muenzer did, and many still do at the present day, who wish to be acute judges between the Spirit and the letter, and yet know not what they say or declare. 4] For [indeed] the Papacy also is nothing but sheer enthusiasm, by which the Pope boasts that all rights exist in the shrine of his heart, and whatever he decides and commands with [in] his church is spirit and right, even though it is above and contrary to Scripture and the spoken Word.
5] All this is the old devil and old serpent, who also converted Adam and Eve into enthusiasts, and led them from the outward Word of God to spiritualizing and self-conceit, and nevertheless he accomplished this through other outward words. 6] Just as also our enthusiasts [at the present day] condemn the outward Word, and nevertheless they themselves are not silent, but they fill the world with their pratings and writings, as though, indeed, the Spirit could not come through the writings and spoken word of the apostles, but [first] through their writings and words he must come. Why [then] do not they also omit their own sermons and writings, until the Spirit Himself come to men, without their writings and before them, as they boast that He has come into them without the preaching of the Scriptures? But of these matters there is not time now to dispute at greater length; we have elsewhere sufficiently urged this subject.
7] For even those who believe before Baptism, or become believing in Baptism, believe through the preceding outward Word, as the adults, who have come to reason, must first have heard: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, even though they are at first unbelieving, and receive the Spirit and Baptism ten years afterwards. 8] Cornelius, Acts 10:1ff , had heard long before among the Jews of the coming Messiah, through whom he was righteous before God, and in such faith his prayers and alms were acceptable to God (as Luke calls him devout and God-fearing), and without such preceding Word and hearing could not have believed or been righteous. But St. Peter had to reveal to him that the Messiah (in whom, as one that was to come, he had hitherto believed) now had come, lest his faith concerning the coming Messiah hold him captive among the hardened and unbelieving Jews, but know that he was now to be saved by the present Messiah, and must not, with the [rabble of the] Jews deny nor persecute Him.
9] In a word, enthusiasm inheres in Adam and his children from the beginning [from the first fall] to the end of the world, [its poison] having been implanted and infused into them by the old dragon, and is the origin, power [life], and strength of all heresy, especially of that of the Papacy and Mahomet. 10] Therefore we ought and must constantly maintain this point, that God does not wish to deal with us otherwise than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. 11] It is the devil himself whatsoever is extolled as Spirit without the Word and Sacraments. For God wished to appear even to Moses through the burning bush and spoken Word; and no prophet neither Elijah nor Elisha, received the Spirit without the Ten Commandments [or spoken Word]. 12] Neither was John the Baptist conceived without the preceding word of Gabriel, nor did he leap in his mother's womb without the voice of Mary. 13] And Peter says, 2 Pet. 1:21: The prophecy came not by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Without the outward Word, however, they were not holy, much less would the Holy Ghost have moved them to speak when they still were unholy [or profane]; for they were holy, says he, since the Holy Ghost spake through them.
The blabbermouths say they worship Jesus, not Luther. They name Jesus but leave people in utter confusion about how they are brought to trust in the Word, justified by faith, and included in the Kingdom of God.
As I showed on an earlier post, WELS/ELS together reject the Book of Concord while claiming to have a quia subscription to the Confessions. No one needs an essay from the big green WELS Talmud to prove the case. Both sects have an unrestrained love for every doctrine except Luther's. When challenged, they repeat the errors of UOJ.
