Hopeless (Moldstad), Helpless (Schroeder), and Hapless (Harrison) imagine that success means keeping people happy and continuing as thralls of Thrivent. I will explore the incestuous relationship between the sects and Thrivent fairly soon.
More importantly, the impact of Huber's Easter absolution and Knapp's double-justification have eliminated the Means of Grace from worship and from the ordinary thinking of the clergy.
Some will say, "But we have Holy Communion and Holy Baptism. We talk about the Means of Grace." The Roman Catholics do too - but there is never enough grace in the Roman Means of Grace to get someone out of their mini-Hell for the semi-saved, Purgatory.
All the Protestants talk about baptism and the Lord's Supper (communion is an odious term for most of them). But the non-Lutheran Protestants treat the Sacraments as ordinances, laws that urge Christian to perform acts that affirm their faith. An ordinance does not confer grace at all.
Universal Objective Justification unites the Olde Synodical Conference with ELCA. Everyone is forgiven - everyone has already been forgiven. Although the implications of that falsehood vary somewhat, the Big Four end up in the same sinking boat together, figuratively and literally. The demons recognize one another and establish fellowship together. The Big Four (ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS) work together at all levels and troop off to Fuller Seminary together. They work together through Thrivent and Lutheran World Relief. Unionism and doctrinal indifference are so close that one is either the daughter or the mother of the other.
UOJ is not a harmless error because the the demonic doctrine is a repudiation of the Gospel. Here are the obvious results of UOJ:
- Clergy and laity no longer trust in the efficacy of the Word, so they are directed toward schemes, methods, and entertainment.
- The sermon is not an opportunity to create and sustain faith in the Gospel, but a chance to tickle people into membership and financial support. The Old Adam speaks to the Old Adam instead of the Spirit working through the Word alone.
- No one respects the divine call because every parish is a franchise business that must obey the franchise owners at headquarters.
- The fruits of the Spirit are almost entirely lacking because the Gospel has been replaced with a bogus substitute and angry tirades against faith. This naturally leads people into more rationalism and Pentecostalism, often a combination of both errors.
- Right and wrong are judged based on the franchise rather than the Ten Commandments. Adulterers and worse are hailed as saviors of the synod while anyone who questions the franchise is excommunicated, shunned, and covered with abuse. His or her family shares in the abuse if they do not join in shunning the dissenter.
- Since there is no Gospel, the UOJ sects are all law, man-made law. Mrs. Ichabod says, "Double predestination and double justification - they mean triple punishment and no forgiveness." Notice that clergy and laity only talk about material success now and never about fidelity to the Word, a reversal of the Biblical standard.
- The clergy plagiarize and the laity love it, because worship has become a joke.
- Genuine Biblical study is obsolete, because UOJ cannot bear the weight of casual reading, let alone serious scholarship (which any layman can do). Thus the new papalism - the priest will tell you what the Word of God says, and he is right because the Synodical Pope says so.
- Confessional study is "boring and irrelevant" for the same reasons.
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AC V has left
a new comment on your post "Looking
for Authority Instead of Studying the Word...":
Oh, and one more thing. The Book of Concord. Doesn't the Augsburg Confession, Apology; Article III. "Of Christ" sound like a paraphrase of Romans 4:25?:
"…Christ suffered and died to reconcile the Father to us; and that He was raised again to reign, and to justify and sanctify believers, etc., according to the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed."
Oh, and one more thing. The Book of Concord. Doesn't the Augsburg Confession, Apology; Article III. "Of Christ" sound like a paraphrase of Romans 4:25?:
"…Christ suffered and died to reconcile the Father to us; and that He was raised again to reign, and to justify and sanctify believers, etc., according to the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed."
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AC V has left
a new comment on your post "Looking
for Authority Instead of Studying the Word...":
Couple of Luther quotes on Romans 4:25:
"Sin cannot remain on Christ, since it is swallowed up by his resurrection. Now you see no wounds, no pain in him, and no sign of sin. Thus St. Paul declares that 'Christ died for our sin and rose for our justification' [Rom. 4:25]. That is to say, in his suffering Christ makes our sin known and thus destroys it, but through his resurrection he justifies us and delivers us from all sin, if we believe this." - Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 42: Luther's Works, vol. 42 : Devotional Writings I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (12–13). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
"In Rom. 4:25 Paul says: 'Christ was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.' Consequently, he who presumes that he is righteous in any other way than by believing in Christ rejects Christ and considers Christ’s Passion and resurrection useless. On the other hand, he who believes in Christ, who died—he himself at the same time dies to sin together with Christ; and he who believes in the resurrected and living Christ—he himself, by the same faith, also rises and lives in Christ, and Christ lives in him (Gal. 2:20). Therefore the resurrection of Christ is our righteousness and our life, not only by way of an example but also by virtue of its power. Apart from Christ’s resurrection no one can rise, no matter how many good works he does. On the other hand, through His resurrection anyone at all rises, no matter how much evil he has done, as this is treated at greater length in Romans. Perhaps another reason for Paul’s practice of mentioning the resurrection in his salutations is this, that the Holy Spirit was given through the resurrection of Christ and by this Spirit the apostleship and other gifts were distributed (1 Cor. 12:4 ff.). In this way, therefore, Paul declares that he is an apostle by divine authority through the Spirit of the resurrection of Jesus Christ." - Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 27: Luther's Works, vol. 27 : Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 5-6; 1519, Chapters 1-6 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Ga 1:2). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
Couple of Luther quotes on Romans 4:25:
"Sin cannot remain on Christ, since it is swallowed up by his resurrection. Now you see no wounds, no pain in him, and no sign of sin. Thus St. Paul declares that 'Christ died for our sin and rose for our justification' [Rom. 4:25]. That is to say, in his suffering Christ makes our sin known and thus destroys it, but through his resurrection he justifies us and delivers us from all sin, if we believe this." - Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 42: Luther's Works, vol. 42 : Devotional Writings I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (12–13). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
"In Rom. 4:25 Paul says: 'Christ was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.' Consequently, he who presumes that he is righteous in any other way than by believing in Christ rejects Christ and considers Christ’s Passion and resurrection useless. On the other hand, he who believes in Christ, who died—he himself at the same time dies to sin together with Christ; and he who believes in the resurrected and living Christ—he himself, by the same faith, also rises and lives in Christ, and Christ lives in him (Gal. 2:20). Therefore the resurrection of Christ is our righteousness and our life, not only by way of an example but also by virtue of its power. Apart from Christ’s resurrection no one can rise, no matter how many good works he does. On the other hand, through His resurrection anyone at all rises, no matter how much evil he has done, as this is treated at greater length in Romans. Perhaps another reason for Paul’s practice of mentioning the resurrection in his salutations is this, that the Holy Spirit was given through the resurrection of Christ and by this Spirit the apostleship and other gifts were distributed (1 Cor. 12:4 ff.). In this way, therefore, Paul declares that he is an apostle by divine authority through the Spirit of the resurrection of Jesus Christ." - Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 27: Luther's Works, vol. 27 : Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 5-6; 1519, Chapters 1-6 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Ga 1:2). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
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| The Big Four were described in 1530. |
