Sometimes I mull over the flimsy excuses for Universal Objective Justification. Most of them follow the Knapp line of two justifications. According to their delusions - Objective Justification means the entire world is forgiven, without faith; Subjective Justification takes place when individuals decide they are already forgiven.
When people responded about how ridiculous that sounded. WELS SP Mischke said, "There is only one justification. They are two sides of the same coin." I wonder where he got that analogy - II Mortimer 4:13?
Jay Webber, who makes fun of WELS repeat-after-me doctrine, parrots - "They are two sides of the same coin."
The UOJ Stormtroopers search far and wide for ways to prop up their fantasy, trying to distance themselves from Calvin and Pietism, but are only successful in alienating themselves from Luther and the Apostle Paul.
Their search for UOJ in the Book of Concord is as touching and tragic as the eternal search for the Lost Dutchman Mine outside of Phoenix.
F. Schleiermacher, a bridge between old Halle University and its completely rationalistic era, accepted the first justification and taught that the entire world was justified. This is also the message of the Universalists. Scheiermacher is the foundational theologian for all modern Protestant theologians, such as Karl Barth and Paul Tillich. Thus all of modern theology mocks the notion of faith as detrimental to the concept of grace. Everyone already has grace. Everyone is justified, because Christ rises from the dead every time someone believes He did. How blessed - to reflect on the Easter faith of the Apostles, whose simple fishermen's hearts grasped that illusion! One can carry on with this charade forever, because believers fail to parse the message of the theologians and their deluded pastoral followers.
Tholuck was another bridge theologian at Halle, with a nod toward the past but a bold embrace of Universalism. Tholuck is a footnote in many textbooks, but he was the mentor of Adolph Hoenecke. Some of you are thinking, "Now he will pull a guilt by association fallacy out of his beret." But no, I am just clarifying the historical perspective. Hoenecke was trained in Pietism. So was Walther. Hoenecke did additional study in the Confessions after Halle, so that must have saved him from becoming another CFW. But there remains the dialect of Pietism here and there in Hoenecke, although it is slight.
The precious OJ quickly becomes Universalism among the so-called Lutherans. That is widely acknowledged in ELCA. The implicit Universalism in the Syn Conference renders all discussions about doctrine and worship obsolete. Many realize this, so they play games with their weighty theological treatises, each author hailing the brilliance of the others while "having certain problems with his notion of..."
Universalism as a religion is quite conservative as a heresy, but the Unitarians merged with them and killed off whatever remained of the Scriptures in them. The same path is found among the Syn Conference Lutherans. They adore UOJ and Church Growth because they are Universalists. The rationalism takes over completely and they become Unitarians who despise everything about the Christian faith. I have known three WELS ex-pastors who followed this downward trajectory, each one praised and supported by the synodical leadership - Robert Schumann, Curtis Peterson, and Mark Freier. Doubtless there are many more.
If one knows and believes justification by faith, then he must reject and repudiate justification without faith. No one can teach the efficacy of the Word and UOJ at the same time - one displaces the other. Therefore, all the UOJ nonsense is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, as one reader from California like to point out.
