When WELS taught the Gospel, justification by faith, through the Gausewitz catechism, the fruit of the Spirit was evident.
Outsiders find this as bizarre as I do - the UOJ fanatics are nasty, devious, and dishonest. Their coven is located at LutherQueasy, where they have often bragged about how obnoxious they are.
They have no sense of humor. When I called them SpenerQuest, I was rebuked and told the name of the discussion board was "Lutherquest."
When I proved how deceptive they were, the participants covered up the evidence with tons of posts.
When some friends of mine produced a blizzard of posts opposing their methods, they had the vapors and installed a check-in system.
UOJ wants to be full of grace and the Gospel, so they say everyone is born already justified. The essence of UOJ is universal absolution, however it may be expressed. They declare every single person forgiven of sin, without and before the Gospel Word, without the Means of Grace, and (most of all) without faith.
The UOJ Stormtroopers mock justification by faith by calling traditional Lutherans "faithians." They declare, with great pomp and ignorance, "Your faith is in faith, not in the Gospel." Or, "You regard faith as a work, as a virtue in man, as merit." These Stormtroopers have more straw men than a collection of Oz books.
UOJ has been the dogma behind Church Growth in WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie. The misbegotten CLC (sic) loves UOJ and CG too.
WELS and Missouri work so well with ELCA because they share the same dogma. ELCA calls it all grace. The Syn Conference calls it God's universal verdict of forgiveness. Neither side bothers with Biblical exegesis, which contradicts their propaganda.
But - do not get in the way of their all grace or universal verdict of forgiveness. They will make you feel like Gausewitz, as you feel the bus tires run over your face.
So much Gospel in the Big Four (I am flattering the Little Sect) should yield fantastic results over time. The Big Four combined UOJ with the Church Growth Movement, which should be like Miracle Gro.
Even with excessive pump priming from Thrivent, the foundations, and rich adulterers, the Big Four are broke, shrinking, and polarized. Their clergy are largely ignorant of the Scriptures and the Confessions.
The pastors do not visit their own members! They visit the gym instead.
UOJ is not the Pearl of Great Price. UOJ is not the Gospel. Knapp's message is the anti-Gospel, the heart of mainline Protestant apostasy, the lazy man's Gospel, as Medium Rare wrote.
