Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Robert Preus - Justification and Rome":
(W)ELS Pastor James Humann also provided this quote in defense of his teaching of UOJ:
(W)ELS Our Great Heritage, "Finally, "If forgiveness were dependent on faith in the sense that God does not forgive until we believe, we would always have to be sure that we are believers before we would be sure that we are forgiven." (p.60)
September, 2008
This is directly opposed to Christ when He declares in Mark 4:12, "That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them."
For those who still do not believe that UOJ replaces the faithful Gospel of Justification by Faith Alone Pastor Humann also quotes Our Great Heritage here, "God forever remains the God who punishes all sin, and at the same time he is forever the God who forgives every sin. And only the person who by God's grace has in the vicarious atonement of Christ found a way to believe both truths worships the God of the Bible." (p.53)
There are many other (W)ELS quotes that declare if Objective Justification as taught by the (W)ELS is denied then the Gospel is destroyed. Therefore they admit, and confirm with Pres. Robert Preus, that UOJ is not synonymous with the Atonement and is the once and for all divine verdict of acquittal for the entire unbelieving world. This leads into UOJ's perversion of the unforgivable sin which they call "Unbelief" but that can be the subject of another post.
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GJ - I believe Eduard Preuss--who joined the Church of Rome, after teaching UOJ at St. Louis--invented this argument.
Theology professors and MDivs stick to the same talking points without examining them closely.
Some important questions are:
1. Is this argument Biblical, with some anchor in the Scriptures?
2. Has the Book of Concord uncovered this insight?
3. Is this a logical fallacy, arguing in a circle? The author is saying, "This has to be true, because if universal absolution were not true, I would not have any certainty that it is true."
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Garrett has left a new comment on your post "L. P. Cruz Could Go To Town with This Fallacy":
This leads into UOJ's perversion of the unforgivable sin which they call "Unbelief" but that can be the subject of another post.
Please elaborate. I can remember my grade school teachers trying to pound this doctrine into my head: "The only unforgivable sin is unbelief". By Confirmation time, I started getting confused. "But didn't Jesus atone for all sins?"
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GJ - Jesus said there is no forgiveness for the sin against the Holy Spirit. For non-Lutherans, the verse is a trip into fantasy land. Faithful Lutherans realize that the Holy Spirit and the Word are used for each other in the Scriptures, although they are not the same. One is used for the other because God has bound His Spirit to the Word.
Therefore the sin against the Holy Spirit is dying without faith in Christ alone as our Savior.
KJV Matthew 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
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LPC has left a new comment on your post "L. P. Cruz Could Go To Town with This Fallacy":
Pr. Greg.
we would always have to be sure that we are believers before we would be sure that we are forgiven.
Yes, Pastor, this is an absolute fallacy, it contains a false assumption about faith, an assumption that is not defined by Scripture. Yet NT in Heb 11:1 says faith is the assurance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.
I know of the same thing that happened to E Preuss happened here recently. A Reverend Doctor of LCAus, who articulated UOJ, is now an RC parishioner and lecturing at an RC college here.
UOJ and Poping are connected, specially with Vatican II.
LPC
This is just a quick answer. If I can add more later, I will.
