Vacation
For two weeks around Christmas I will have no classes to teach and only a little bit of homework to grade. My first priority is to get the Justification book ready to send around to seminaries. Secondly, I want to do any revisions necessary for the English--only version of Thy Strong Word, which is on Lulu.com now.
I would like to upload a lot of material to the new Martin Chemnitz Press website. My old domain is gone (gljackson.com) so I am running a new website with the same folks who do TurboTax - Intuit.
The Intrepids (sic) demonstrated the inherent weakness of a church history argument with their merger chart. That convinced me to start Justification with the Biblical passages.
However, I will have a section on key theologians. My Notre Dame program concentrated on modern theology, which is usually skipped over--except for the glories of Fuller Seminary--in the Syn Conference seminaries. That may be one of many reasons why MDiv graduates are lacking in doctrinal discernment.
Key players are:
- Spener and the Pietists, their homage to Calvin.
- Halle University - Knapp and Tholuck. Hoenecke graduated from Halle, mentored by Tholuck.
- Schleiermacher (Halle again) - the pivotal theologian for the modernists. Schleiermacher was very important for that adulterous Commie gas-bag Karl Barth, and Barth is the theologian of Fuller Seminary.
- Walther and his Easter absolution theory.
- Robert Preus, OJ and his repudiation of OJ.
- ELCA's Gospel reductionism, or, how the stuffy old Pietism of yesteryear becomes the far out activism of today.
I have noticed challenges to UOJ coming from all over, and the Syn Conference is reacting with alarm and trepidation.
Additional improvements to the book will include more research from two authors. The advantage of Lulu is that I can develop a new edition and upload it. Every single book is available for free as a PDF download. The books can be distributed as PDFs to anyone, without asking permission, without any charges or licensing fees or litigation.
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Justification by Faith Is Necessary To Combat WELS/ELS/LCMS Enthusiasm
Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Evangelism Program for the Very Wealthy with No Do...":
David J. Beckman provides an explanation of the official and central doctrine of the (W)ELS, "The position that all men’s sins have been forgiven, even the sins of those in hell, has always been held to by orthodox Lutheran theologians."
The following quotes are from an essay delivered at the District Pastor-Teacher Conference of the South Atlantic District, January 27, 1983, Universal and Objective Justification with Special Emphasis on a Recent Controversy.
"Pastor Kobleske of the agenda committee suggested to me that special emphasis be given to the status of those in hell in regard to justification, since that was a major issue in the Kokomo controversy. Because so many other things must be established to adequately discuss the status of those in hell, that issue itself has become a subpoint in this paper. Against the background of’ this recent controversy we take up the topic Universal And Objective Justification." Page 1
"The confusion appears to have arisen particularly over the use of the phrase “status of a saint.” “Status of a saint” is employed by Meyer in his comments on II Corinthians 5:18-21. He uses the phrase to explain all that was involved in God reconciling the world to himself, not charging men with their sins, but imputing to them the righteousness of Christ, who became sin for us. The word “status” is particularly important because it reflects Meyer’s attempt at getting behind the original meaning of the Greek word for reconcile, katalla&ssw, which has to do with change. It’s not a change in man, but it’s a change in God’s attitude toward man; a change in man’s standing with God because of what Christ did. The recipients of this change in status are indeed the entire world.
The Bible therefore does teach that all the sins of all mankind are completely forgiven. That means also the sins of Judas, the sins of the people destroyed in the flood, the sins of all the ungodly, and the sins of all people who will from now to the end of time die apart from Christ and end up in hell. All people have a changed status. But that is not to say that all people are saints.
Cont...
And that is where the problem lies. When we hear the phrase “status of a saint” we dwell more on the world “saint” than on the word “status,” because of how we have heard “saint” used. “Saint” is always used in Scripture to describe the child of God. So without a thorough study of Meyer, it’s easy to jump to the false conclusion that Meyer says all are saints; that all people are going to heaven; that WELS has endorsed universalism. But that’s certainly not what Meyer or the WELS teaches, as we will hear in our subsequent paper on subjective justification. To say that all are justified and all are forgiven is not the same as saying all are going to heaven.
The position that all men’s sins have been forgiven, even the sins of those in hell, has always been held to by orthodox Lutheran theologians. Koehler writes, “There is not a soul in all the world which God has not already absolved from all sin. This is called objective or universal justification.”22 Schaller says, "Salvation is just as perfect and complete for those who are finally lost. This is the only reason, but a sufficient one, why he that believeth not is damned. Unbelief is the rejection of life and salvation achieved and personally intended for every unbeliever." 23 Orthodox Lutherans therefore, on the basis of the scriptural doctrine of universal and objective justification, teach, believe and confess that all people who have lived, are living or will ever live on earth have been declared righteous by God and have thus been forgiven of all their sins." Page 8/9
"The same precious truth is most important in the care and instruction of our little ones. What does frightened little Suzy need to hear when she comes to you and says, “Teacher, my Baptist friend told me I’m going to burn in hell if I don’t hurry up and ask Jesus into my heart”? What a time to apply the objective reality of Jesus’ love for Suzy! What a time to apply Christ’s universal salvation to this trembling little lamb!" Page 9
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckmanUniversal.PDF
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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Evangelism Program for the Very Wealthy with No Do...":
Here are a few quotes from one of the (W)ELS' most highly and favorably quoted UOJ theologians, Siegbert W. Becker. I was recently told by a (W)ELS pastor, "I did have Sig Becker for a professor, for a number of classes, and I can say, and will say from the roof-tops if called upon to do so, that this man is so far away from UOJ that he's not even in the same universe. OK, I know, I know, he defended Kokomo, but I happen to know that that was a case of synod blood being thicker than confessional water, so to speak. Of course, that doesn't make it right, but that's the fact, Jack - as the kids say these days... So, I may be dumb, but I'm not totally stupid. So, I think - in my own humble opinion - that if I say some guy is not an UOJ fanatic, I just might know what heck I'm talking about."
The following quotes are taken from Becker's essay entitled, "Objective Justification".
In the light of the previous discussion we may now briefly evaluate the so-called “Four Kokomo Statements.” The statements read:
1) 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 it or not, whether he believes it or not, has received the status of a saint.
2) After Christ’s intervention and through Christ’s intervention, God regards all sinners as guiltfree saints.
3) When God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, he individually pronounced forgiveness to each individual sinner whether that sinner ever comes to faith or not.
4) At the time of the resurrection of Christ God looked down in hell and declared Judas, the people destroyed in the flood, and all the ungodly, innocent, not guilty, and forgiven of all sin and gave unto them the status of saints.
"The first three statements are taken verbatim from WELS sources. It should be said that they are found in contexts that throw considerable light on what the writers intended to convey by the words used. The last statement is quoted from a term paper from Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne.
Every one of the statements can be understood correctly, even though one must swallow a little hard to accede to the fourth. However, because the statements were used to discredit the truth of universal justification and to cause other laymen to doubt this teaching it is especially necessary to point out that the statements do not contain false doctrine."
"One really becomes a guilt-free saint only through faith, if we limit ourselves to the biblical usage of the word. However, since our holiness, as Augustine says, consists in sin’s remission rather than in life’s perfection, we could say that when God forgave the sins of the whole world he regarded all sinners as guilt-free, but if they are guilt-free we might also say that they are considered sinless in the sight of God. But a sinless person is a holy person, a saint."
Page 13/14
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.PDF
See Ichabod's posting of Becker's two essays - click here.
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LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Just A Vacation Book - Or Two":
"To say that all are justified and all are forgiven is not the same as saying all are going to heaven."
This begs the question then...what is justifying faith? This is just one baby step away from universalism.
"Unbelief is the rejection of life and salvation achieved and personally intended for every unbeliever."
And I thought unbelief was the rejection of Christ and the forgiveness of sins that comes through faith....alone....
