KJV 1 Timothy 6:3-5 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.
One person on LutherQuest (sic) said correctly that the vast majority of laity stare blankly when UOJ is discussed.
Rome: Grey Areas of Scripture
That alone should alarm the guardians of UOJ. The clarity or perspicuity of the Scriptures is one of the primary themes of the Lutheran Reformation. When the pope's leaders began arguing from the Word of God, they were trounced by the Reformers, as Chemnitz noted in his Examination of the Council of Trent. From that point on the papalists began attacking the lack of clarity, the incompleteness of the Scriptures. The Word of God was so bewildering that everyone needed the pope to explain it.
When WELS pastors identify a "gray area of Scripture," they are aping Rome and preparing the laity for another new opinion to be revealed by...the synod, which is run by Fuller-trained Church and Changers.
Deposit of Faith
From that point the papalists developed the Deposit of Faith concept. When new Roman doctrines appeared, it was because Jesus gave them to the apostles, who passed them down to bishops, to be revealed at the proper time. Thus the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Assumption of Mary could be taught without Scriptural support because these doctrines were passed down through the bishops.
The parallels with UOJ are remarkable, because "everyone is righteous, with or without faith" never appeared until after the Reformation and Book of Concord. The first version came from Samuel Huber, who was repudiated by P. Leyser - an expert on justification, an editor of the Book of Concord and the biographer of Chemnitz. Others joined in the rebuke and Huber lost his teaching position.
Pope and Priesthood
The Church of Rome has taught for centuries that the pope is infallible in all his teaching, because the Holy Spirit would not allow him to err in doctrine. All cardinals, bishops, and priests are also infallible if they teach in agreement with the pope.
Those who question the pope are banned, excommunicated, and sometimes hounded to extinction. One cardinal was afraid for his life after he opposed the new doctrine of papal infallibility. Even those who submitted to the pope were disciplined, because they dared to oppose him at first. Those who promoted papal infallibility were promoted and sainted.
Note that WELS excommunicates members for questioning their opinions, even for asking about how their money is wasted. One former member described a relative, a WELS pastor, who wondered about the financial wastefulness of WELS. He was removed from the ministry.
Cracks in the Edifice Do Not Matter
Rome produced a remarkable three-volume work on Mary, which gave away their historical knowledge that Marian doctrines were invented long after she died, centuries after the New Testament was revealed to the Church. That does not matter to them because the Magisterium has revealed these truths and they are fixed for all eternity, until they want to change things again, such as teaching the Assumption of Joseph.
WELS and Missouri simply skip over the fact that their new love is a recent invention, that generations have been taught without the precious insight of Sodom being righteous in the sight of God, Judas and Hitler being guilt-free saints in Hell.
Unified Truth of the Bible versus the Sectarian Spirit
The Bible is the Book of the Holy Spirit, as Luther wrote. Every verse is in harmony with the rest of the Scriptures, so Lutherans do not isolate verses--as the sects do--and create a new religion out of one phrase. Nor do the faithful change the Word of God (as the NNIV does) to provide words in agreement with the latest social and doctrinal fads.
The Scriptures teach the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace. That simply means that the Holy Spirit creates faith and sustains faith in Christ, through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament. The Holy Spirit does not work apart from the Word. Grace does not come to anyone apart from the Means of Grace.
UOJ Is Mainline
WELS and Missouri work so well with apostate mainline church bodies because UOJ is the unifying doctrine, truly their only doctrine. Richard Jungkuntz passed easily from teaching UOJ in WELS to teaching the same in the LCMS, moving on to a future ELCA college as provost. He was a leader in the Seminex cause and chaired their board. He was the Seminex hero I often read about in the Missouri in Perspective tabloid. Gehrke, from NWC, was another Seminex hero.
Roger Zehms, a Church Growther in WELS and now at Jeske's church, said, "Jungkuntz was the best teacher I ever had." He teared up a bit.
Missouri still has funerals with the Seminex banner displayed, and Northwestern College reunions feature many cars with Seminex bumper stickers.
When ELCA speaks of grace, they mean everyone in the world is already forgiven and saved. When "conservative" Lutherans emphasize saved by GRACE, they mean the same thing. They even say the same words, then claim they are not teaching Universalism.
Confusion of Terms
Roman Catholics write with great eloquence because they have a deep bench. Their varsity squad is bigger than all the Protestant faculties put together. To advance Rome's cause they dazzle everyone with their rhetoric and use words as they choose.
Book of Concord Lutherans do not have the luxury of juggling words. Baptism is not Holy Communion and the atonement is not justification.
When the matter is confused no one has the license to play with words, like Alice in Wonderland:
The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"
"Come, we shall have some fun now!" thought Alice. "I'm glad they've begun asking riddles. — I believe I can guess that," she added aloud.
"Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" said the March Hare.
"Exactly so," said Alice.
"Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.
"I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know."
"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "You might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"
"You might just as well say," added the March Hare, "that 'I like what I get' is the same thing as 'I get what I like'!"
"You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same thing as 'I sleep when I breathe'!"
(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7)
The same logical summersaults are performed daily by the UOJ fanatics. Everyone is forgiven, but not everyone is forgiven. Atonement is justification. Their universal absolution is found everywhere in the Bible but they cannot locate a single passage articulating this message. If they contradict themselves at every turn, they are teaching human opinions rather than Christian doctrine. Can UOJ be grasped by a child-like faith?
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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Tests of Sound Doctrine. UOJ Stormtroopers Failing...":
Another sad result of the Lutheran confession of the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification is the requirement to embrace contradictions as though they were from God. This is why they hate being quoted and rage when they are. Their central doctrine is contrary to Scripture and therefore it is inconsistent and opposes pure doctrine. So their explanation of Christ's doctrines are contradictory because the source and root is. Contradictions abound and so they do not want to be quoted nor can any statement be taken for what the UOJist really meant.
A Pastor at the 2011 Emmaus Conference made an inference that the quotes I provided attendees showing how (W)ELS and LCMS UOJists statements were contrary to Scripture and the Confessions were taken out of context. He said, “Did you quote the whole book?” as though I had to quote the entire book that was written in order for the UOJ statement to be taken in context. What a disgrace! Now when I email (W)ELS pastors about statements made in their publicly published sermons that are contrary to Scripture and the Confessions they refuse to answer or clarify. UOJ has destroyed their faithfulness to Christ and rejects the work of the Holy Spirit which causes a Christian to desire to give a confession of what he believes and teaches. They are scared to commit to anything unless they have the protection of the Synod which will confirm if what they believe and teach is correct.
