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| WELS scholarship is so awesome. Exceptions to this claim are: LCMS German catechism, LCMS KJV catechism (still in print) Gausewitz WELS catechism. |
AC V has left a new comment on your post "Mystery Solved: The Secret Behind Robert Preus' Ju...":
Don't forget to read the footnotes in Hardt's essay, especially footnote #75 where he references R. Söderlund in his article “Läran om den universella rättfärdiggörelsen i teologihistorisk belysning” (“The doctrine of universal justification in the light of the history of theology”) in Svensk Teologisk Kvartalstidskrift, 1979, pp. 114-129.
In his article Söderlund criticizes S. Becker's theology of "Universal Justification":
Absolution and the means of grace are downgraded to means of communication and deprived of their efficacy. Sig Becker. op. cit., p. 55, interprets John 20:23: “they are remitted unto them” as a reference to what has already happened at Calvary, p. 56: “The meaning is this: ‘They have been forgiven completely in the past, and they still are forgiven now. This means that when we preach the message of the Gospel, we do not effect the remission of sins through our sermon.’” (tr. from Swedish). 3) Universal justification is said to be the contents of the sermon to be delivered to the heathen without any previous reference to the Law. This striking similarity to Huber’s pastoral advice to the Wittenberg theologians, quoted above in our article, is found in Becker, op. cit., p. 56 f. (tr. from Swedish): “In America it is very common that Reformed missionaries tell a man whom they try to gain: ‘Are you saved?’ … It is, however, not likely that a Lutheran missionary would ask: ‘Are you saved?’, as the experience of conversion is not so important from his theological point of view. As he believes in universal redemption and in universal justification it is more likely that he changes the order of the words and says: ‘You are saved,’ ‘Your sins are forgiven unto you.’ He can say so to everyone, as he knows that it is true about everyone.” Through the centuries Huber’s missionary sermon: “Habetis gratiam Dei” resounds in the 20th century. Undoubtedly Söderlund’s fears concerning the theology introduced through Becker into Sweden seem reasonably justified.
Perhaps a side-by-side "You are saved" quote by Becker next to the discredited Huber "You have salvation" quote would be appropriate.
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| One cannot toss double-justification schemes back into the Book of Concord era, 1580. Double-justification language was expressed by Knapp/Woods in 1831, endorsed by CFW Walther later. |
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GJ - I would love to have a Huber graphic. There must be one out there.
