There is a God has left a new comment on your post "I Can Hardly Wait!":
We have a winner!!!!! Michael Thom from New Ulm, Minnesota
As Countless As The Sands
As countless as the sands upon the mighty ocean's shore,
So many live on earth today, so many came before.
Each one was known to you, O Lord -- each face, each voice, each name --
And in your heart of hearts, O Lord, you loved each one the same.
Though there is found upon the earth none righteous -- no not one,
Though all have sinned and fallen short in all that we have done,
Yet in your tender mercy and your all-embracing love
You sent your Son, your only Son, to help us from above.
Behold, the Lamb sent forth by God to bear all sin and blame,
Whose sinless soul assumed the debt of every sinner's shame,
That all the world might be released from fear and death and hell
And have instead His righteousness and in His presence dwell.
What joy! To know that God in Christ declared all sinners free,
For with that blessed verdict comes great confidence for me;
Though great my guilt and weak my works, that verdict stands most sure --
In Jesus ALL are justified! In this I rest secure!
For all the world God's verdict stands -- for every tribe and clan,
For male and female, slave and free, for child and aged man,
For rich and poor, for black and white, for Gentile and for Jew --
God's "Innocent!" declares to all: the Savior died for you!
---
Universalist Herald
GOD LOVES EVERYONEBy Ron Sexsmith
God loves everyone
Like a mother loves her son
No strings at all
Unconditional
Never one to judge
Would never hold a grudge
'Bout what's been done
God loves everyone
There are no gates in heaven
Everyone gets in
Queer or straight
Souls of every faith
Hell is in our minds
Hell is in this life
But when it's gone
God takes everyone
Its love is like a womb
It’s like the air from room to room
It surrounds us all
The living and the dead
May we never lose the thread
That bound us all
The killer in his cell
The atheist as well
The pure of heart
And the wild at heart
Are all worthy of its grace
It's written in the face
Of everyone
God loves everyone
There's no need to be saved
No need to be afraid
Cause when it’s done
God takes everyone
God loves everyone
(From the Nov./Dec. 2007
Issue of the UNIVERSALIST
HERALD, from Ron Sexsmith’s
---
I attend a Unitarian Universalist Service:
I look around. Two members in two different areas of the church are drinking coffee out of Starbucks containers. This annoys me. I cannot say that they are being disrespectful, since no Divine Presence has been invoked, but it bothers me nonetheless. I begin to wonder if this is the beginning of a disturbing trend, and if churches, like bookstores, will one day serve only as mere excuses for a Starbucks. Will there be splinter groups? Will Lutherans go with Caribou Coffee in a show of nonconformity?
10 comments:
Sorry, but there are no winners. All are justified? Believers are justified through faith in Jesus. Abraham's faith was counted as righteous. If the guilt-free saints in hell are justified, then they can go to heaven. My previous statement is pure apostasy, and my own pastor would wash my mouth out with soap for echoing such language. I supose the "winner" was to thin-skined to use the terms universal and objective.
In Christ,
from WELS church lady
The Lutheran Confessions:
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_10_repentance.php
6]"Let any one of the adversaries come forth and tell us when remission of sins takes place. O good God, what darkness there is! They doubt whether it is in attrition or in contrition that remission of sins occurs. And if it occurs on account of contrition, what need is there of absolution, what does the power of the keys effect, if sins have been already remitted?"
"But when it is said that faith justifies, some perhaps understand it of the beginning, namely, that faith is the beginning of justification or preparation for justification, so that not faith itself is that through which we are accepted by God,"
48] "The adversaries feign that faith is only a knowledge of the history, and therefore teach that it can coexist with mortal sin. Hence they say nothing concerning faith, by which Paul so frequently says that men are justified, because those who are accounted righteous before God do not live in mortal sin."
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_4_justification.php
The Defense of the Augsburg Confession What Is Justifying Faith?, 48] "The adversaries
feign that faith is only a knowledge of the history, and therefore teach that it can coexist
with mortal sin. Hence they say nothing concerning faith, by which Paul so frequently
says that men are justified, because those who are accounted righteous before God do
not live in mortal sin."
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_4_justification.php
Martin Luther
"As before said, they regard faith of slight importance; for they do not understand that it is our sole justifier. To accept as true the record of Christ--this they call faith. The devils have the same sort of faith, but it does not make them godly. Such belief is not Christian faith; no, it is rather deception." And here, "You see how they make faith of no value to themselves, and so must regard as heresy all doctrine based upon it. Thus they do away with the whole Gospel. These are they who deny the Christian faith and exterminate it from the world.
Paul prophesied concerning them when he said (1 Tim 4, 1): "In later times some shall fall away from the faith." The voice of faith is now silenced all over the world. Indeed, faith is condemned and banished as the worst heresy, and all who teach and endorse it are condemned with it. The Pope, the bishops, charitable institutions, cloisters, high schools, unanimously opposed it for nearly four hundred years, and simply drove the world violently into hell. Their conduct is the real persecution by Antichrist, in the last times."
"Note, faith justifies the individual; faith is justification. Because of faith God remits all sins, and forgives the old Adam and the Cain in our nature, for the sake of Christ his beloved Son, whose name faith represents."
"You cannot extricate yourself from unbelief, nor can the Law do it for you. All your works in intended fulfilment of the Law must remain works of the Law and powerless to justify in the sight of God, who regards as just only believing children."
http://www.trinitylutheranms.org/MartinLuther/MLSermons/Galatians4_1_7.html
The Pope, the bishops, charitable institutions, cloisters, high schools, the Lutheran Synods unanimously oppose the faith of the Holy Spirit, and are driving the world violently into hell. Their conduct is the real persecution by Antichrist, in the last times.
I thought that the deleterious effects of UOJ had run their course in the Midwest synods, but now there's a hymn to UOJ. How much further can the synods fall into error?
How much further can the synods fall into error?
It's become a subjective measurement. They've completely destroyed the central doctrine of Christ's Word, Justification by Faith Alone, with their false gospel of Universal Objective Justification.
The Chief Article of Christian faith, Justification, the one doctrine which if confessed faithfully to Scripture you are saved eternally, and if you pervert it in any aspect you are condemned, has been perverted by all Lutheran Synods.
There are now no organizations of churches which teach as their official doctrine Justification by Faith Alone as Scripture clearly teaches and the Lutheran Confessions correctly explain. They all teach Justification by Works Righteousness or Justification by a Righteousness without and before the Means of Grace, God's Word and Baptism.
With the Chief Article perverted there will be no end to their progressive apostasy and blasphemy - all while claiming to be Christians.
Rev. Joel Otto, the new historical theology professor at Mequon, will now have to shore up the defense of UOJ in the WELS:
http://www.wls.wels.net/feature/maintaining-your-seminary
Call accepted
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Pastor Joel D. Otto, class of 1995, has accepted the call to serve as professor of Historical Theology and Practical Theology (education).
Since 2006 he has served Trinity, Minocqua, WI. He was also serving as circuit pastor for the Rhinelander Circuit of the Northern Wisconsin District. Otto, his wife, Laura, and their three children will move to our campus in the coming months. Please keep them in your prayers.
The Mequon seminary is asking for money for renovations. They thought it was a good time, believe it or not, because the seminary was dedicated on the eve of the Depression, so why not ask for money during the Great Recession:
http://www.wls.wels.net/feature/maintaining-your-seminary
excerpt: Even with the Great Depression looming, WELS men and women offered the gifts of love that would make the new campus a reality.
Pator Otto was not the first call on the list. The first three declined the call. I cannot be certain what number Pastor Otto's call was. Strange! Word around the campfire was that this teaching position is about looking into the historical teachings of Justification.
In Christ,
from WELS church lady
Pastor Otto has given a good essay on the centrality of Justification by Faith Alone in Lutheran worship which is faithful to Scripture and Christ. In the essay he does not fall into teaching the false gospel of UOJ but unfortunately he does provide a link and recommendation to Pastor Jon Buchholz' infamous 2005 Conference paper promoting UOJ and which continues to lead people away from salvation through faith alone in Christ.
The treatment of this essay is an interesting lesson in (W)ELS message management. Note Tiefel's addendum to the essay where he goes all Church Growth on Pastor Otto's statements.
Here's a telling quote from James Tiefel: "Pastor Kelm wrote in the previously mentioned editorial: “Perhaps music should reinforce basic Christian truth and express praise and prayer, leaving teaching to the sermon.” This is a critical issue in our church today: Can’t we abandon the teaching function of music in worship and allow the sermon to assume the primary teaching function? The answer to the question is: Of course we can." Page 25
Joel D. Otto
The Augustana and Lutheran Worship
2005, Presented at the "Symposium on the Lutheran Confessions" at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, September, 2005. A reaction from Prof. James Tiefel is appended to the document.
I. The Augustana’s Definition of Lutheran Worship
A confessional Lutheran understands the axiom that the article upon which the church stands or falls is justification by faith. The Augustana confesses that truth. The entire confession revolves around Article IV.
Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace for Christ’s sake through faith when we believe that Christ has suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness in his sight, as St. Paul says in Romans 3[:21–26] and 4[:5].2 Page 1
3 For an excellent exposition of justification, see the two essays by Pastor Jon Buchholz delivered at the 58th WELS convention this past summer. Page 2
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/OttoAugustana.pdf
I have not posted at this forum before, but since you have found fault with my hymn, I would like to make a few comments.
First, let me say that I believe that the sinner is justified before God by faith, and not by works of the law. Faith in Christ is the hand by which we sinners receive all of the gifts that God offers in and through our Savior. This is the individual, subjective appropriation of the work of Christ.
Having said that, I would also like to respond to what is implied in your use of red letters in my hymn.
In the first verse, you apparently saw something wrong with the words “and in Your heart of hearts, O Lord, You loved each one the same.” These words were intended to say the same thing as the Lord said in John 3:16, “God so loved the world…” I would hope that it is stating the obvious to say that “the world” is each and every soul. God loved each one. And His love for each one was a genuine, real, 100% love. He did not love some more than others. He wanted every one to be saved. He sent His Son for every sinner.
In the third verse you highlighted “that all the world might be released from sin and death and hell, And have instead His righteousness and in His presence dwell.” Again, I see nothing unscriptural in these words. The phrase is intended to be understood as conveying God’s purpose or intent. Why did God send forth His Son and lay on Him the sins of the world? It was God’s purpose or intent that the end result of His Son’s life and death would be that every sinner would be saved and enjoy eternal life with Him in heaven. This is what Scripture says (John 1:29; 1 Tim 2:4), and I believe this is easily understood in the words of this verse.
Verses four and five refer to God’s universal verdict of innocent in Christ. Jesus completely paid the penalty for every sinner’s guilt through His passive obedience. By His active obedience He satisfied every demand of God’s law. On the third day God the Father raised His Son to life, thereby declaring to all the world that He has accepted the life and death of Christ as full payment and as the required righteousness for every person in all of history. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s judicial declaration to each and every sinner: For Jesus’ sake I declare your punishment paid in full and My righteous requirements fully met.
That judicial declaration gives power to the Gospel invitation: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” Through faith in Jesus, the individual sinner appropriates for himself that universal verdict. It is in Christ, and only in Christ, that God declares this world of sinners forgiven and righteous. (The sinner who stands apart from Christ chooses to go it alone before God’s judgment throne and will get what his unrighteousness has earned.)
This is what has been taught for generations in conservative Lutheranism. In Francis Pieper’s comments on 2 Cor. 5:19, he says: “The katallassein of Rom 5:10 and 2 Cor 5:19 does not refer…to any change that occurs in men, but describes an occurrence in the heart of God. It was God who laid His anger by on account of the ransom brought by Christ. It was God who at that time already had in His heart forgiven the sins of the whole world, for the statement: ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself’ means – and that is not our, but the Apostle’s own interpretation – that God did ‘not impute their trespasses unto them.’ And ‘not imputing trespasses’ is, according to Scripture (Rom 4:6-8) synonymous with ‘forgiving sins,’ ‘justifying’ the sinner. The resurrection of Christ is, as Holy Writ teaches, the actual absolution of the whole world of sinners. Rom 4:25: ‘Who was raised again for our justification.’ At that time we were objectively declared free from sin. (Christian Dogmatics, II, 348).
"This is what has been taught for generations in conservative Lutheranism."
True, if you mean for the past 100 years or so. False, if you mean since the Book of Concord. Compare and contrast:
"The katallassein of Rom 5:10 and 2 Cor 5:19 does not refer…to any change that occurs in men, but describes an occurrence in the heart of God." - Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, II, 348, circa 1917–1924.
"Although Christ has acquired for us the remission of sins, justification, and sonship, God just the same does not justify us prior to our faith. Nor do we become God's children in Christ in such a way that justification in the mind of God takes place before we believe." - Abraham Calov, Apodixis Articulorum Fidei, Lueneburg, 1684.
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