The assumptions of Universal Objective Justification skip the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace, which is clearly taught in the Scriptures and confessed in the Book of Concord.
I saw how consistent Luther and Confessors were when I began to look into this matter for Thy Strong Word.
The entire corpus supporting UOJ comes from Bishop Stephan, STD, his enforcer and minion, CFW Walther, and the leaders empowered in the Synodical Conference.
Not all the SynConference leaders taught UOJ, nor was it taught all the time in all places. The SynConference elected Gausewitz as their president, a singular honor and sign of respect. The Gausewitz catechism was the not just the WELS catechism but also the catechism for anyone else in the SynConference. No one condemned him as a heretic. No one ousted him for teaching justification by faith.
UOJ solidified in the ELS and WELS because of their ignorant and contentious leaders. Like Walther, they had to kick out and ban anyone who disagreed with them. Pope John the Malefactor (ELS) and Pope Paul the Plagiarist (LCMS) are truth Waltherians.
Bishop Stephan made his clergy obey him in abject submission. Anyone who made the mistake of dissenting was immediately disciplined and forced to pay homage to the syphilitic and adulterous leader.
Pietism goes well with a lack of education. Stephan never finished his university training. He started at Halle University, the fetid womb of Pietism, and did some more work at another school. Walther only had a college degree in rationalism and training in Pietism from Stephan.
The actual assumptions of the UOJ fanatics are:
- Walther is the infallible exegete of Lutheran doctrine.
- Everyone who agrees with UOJ is an authority on Lutheran doctrine.
- If the Bible does not teach UOJ, we can fix that with the NNIV.
- UOJ is the Gospel - faith is something bad, except as faith in UOJ, which is good.
- Everyone is born forgiven. Everyone in the world is a guilt-free saint. Everyone is already saved.
Anyone who raises the historical issues (Pietism) or the Biblical issues (efficacy, Means of Grace) is brushed aside, because UOJ dogma trumps everything.
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LPC has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Is Correct, If the Assumptions Are Correct.But...":
UOJ is wrong because it is founded on rational grounds not on exegetical grounds. I just read a few portions of Deutchslander's essays on Justification and I could not continue because I soon die in interest. I usually get that way when I encounter an inferior handling of the Sacred text.
LPC
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GJ - The same things are said repeatedly, with no regard to exegesis. It is just the opposite of what WELS claims about Wauwatosi theology. They wedge their Enthusiasm into the text, no matter how poor the fit.
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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Is Correct, If the Assumptions Are Correct.But...":
I would not doubt that one of the behind the scenes unconscious motivating factors for the acceptance and push for universal objective justification by Lutheran enthusiasts, is, that they cannot accept the plain words of our Lord:
Matthew 7:13 - Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.
Matthew 7:14 - For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it. - KJV
These Lutheran enthusiasts, like the political correctness cosmos, cannot conceive that a gracious and loving God who sent His Son to die for the sins of the whole world would then send a large portion of His creation to hell. [Matthew 25:31-46] They go all agog over UOJ but conveniently ignore and forget that the Lord's first gift to mankind in the Garden, was free moral agency [free will].
Hence, the UOJ teaching, exacts and demands an unscriptural [universal] forgiveness for all where there is none; and hence, the works' righteousness infatuation with "church growth" gimmickry to attempt to widen the Narrow Gate.
Nathan M. Bickel - Bay City, MI
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
