Luther Answered the Faith Question in 1535. Willl the UOJ Experts Respond?

KJV Galatians 1:11 But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 

12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The UOJ Hive of Enthusiasts always starts to buzz when someone mentions faith. That is why the Enthusiasts want a justification without faith. They have all kinds of pious excuses for hating faith, but that only covers up their divorce of the Holy Spirit, Word, and justification.

Walther, called a fox by Bishop Stephan, was too wily to take on the Reformation by himself. Like Karl Barth, he used the language of theology to overthrow the Christian Faith. After copying the Pietism of Halle and its perversion of justification, Walther added election to the mix. Mentioning that despised word faith, he claimed that faith must be excluded to keep everything in order and God-glorifying (i.e. - Walther-glorifying). But that really went against the Formula of Concord's brilliant article on election, which can be summarized easily - Those who have faith were elected by God.

UOJ lives on if clauses, just as weevils live on flour. Let me demonstrate: "If we allow any talk about faith when speaking of election, that robs God of His glory, the Gospel of its glory, and makes man the cause of his own salvation." Anything can go into that if clause, making the result seem to be proof of the claim. But is it proof? A false beginning yields a bad argument. "If blondes have more fun, I will never have fun, since I am not a blonde." This is also accomplished with questions - "Is it true blondes have more fun?" That was an effective ad, that led to millions bleaching their hair to have more fun.

Luther on Faith

I am putting together a new collection of Luther quotations, with 15 graphics for chapter one alone, using the longer version of Luther's Galatians Commentary as my source.

The quotation above is obvious to any student of the Bible, but the UOJ Pharisees are just the opposite. They are opponents of the Word of God, using tidbits to attack the Scriptures with pious bows and scrapes, stained-glass evasions and subterfuges.

Faith is not bad, because faith is a gift of God, the result of the Holy Spirit at word through the Word. As Hoenecke said so concisely: "The Holy Spirit never without the Word. The Word never without the Holy Spirit. That is sound doctrine."

Mocking Faith = Mocking the Word

I have offered many examples of the WELS Shrinkers mocking Hoenecke's statement, in print, and that includes the First VP James Huebner, his side-kick Larry Olson, and elder false prophet Paul Calvin Kelm.

The only way to forgiveness of sin is faith Therefore, the preaching of the Gospel will plant this faith in those who hear the message of Christ dying for their sins. Anyone can say, "He died for the sins of the world." That is true. But to say, "He died for my sins" requires faith.

UOJ Enthusiasts have no sins. They bray that whenever they endorse their dogma and repeat the bizarre fantasies of Eduard Preuss, the Missouri professor who became a papal apologist  - starting a trend for future Missouri hacks. 

Because they abuse the Biblical word faith and use it to mean making a decision for universal absolution, the UOJ gurus are not confessing their sin at all. They are confessing their absolution and their trust in that pre-natal absolution - without faith and without the Word.

More Word Means More Faith

The  second paragraph in the graphic explains where the Lutheran sects have gone wrong. A pastor's obligation, which he should see as a privilege, is to study the Word and present an abundance of Scriptural teaching in his congregation. He should sow the Word carelessly, never "soil testing" (Fuller - endorsed by SynConference Shrinkers).

The Internet allows us to share these efforts without additional cost and without great effort. Blogging is push-button publishing, almost as easy as plagiarism. Why are so few congregations afraid to sow the Word, to follow the command and example of Christ?

That second paragraph is not exclusively about pastors but about everyone's relationship to the Word. No one has an excuse to avoid studying the Word. 

For a princely sum I can hire DP Don Patterson to be my life-coach. But for the price of a Bible, I can be taught by the Holy Spirit, a better and more honest coach.

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Luther Answered the Faith Question in 1535. Willl ...":

Ichabod -

Very nice commentary! I think that you best sum up the Lutheran Universalists [McCaininites], by the following 2 sentences:

>>>>>>> .......Because they abuse the Biblical word faith and use it to mean making a decision for universal absolution, the UOJ gurus are not confessing their sin at all. They are confessing their absolution and their trust in that pre-natal absolution - without faith and without the Word.......... <<<<<<<<<

It is no wonder why there is the apparent push to make common with Romanists and even to admire their lactating graven images. Like infants depend upon their mothers’ lactation; universal objective justification enthusiasts [McCaininites] continually suck on their Atonement perversion of Scripture. I realize while I state this that it is an unfair comparison [analogy] because a mother's milk is not (generally) harmful to her infant offspring. But, the milk of universal objective justification teaching is very harmful and poisonous to those to whom it is taught and preached. I've documented some of this in my one lengthy article which I submitted to this website. Here's the link:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/07/pastor-nathan-bickel-on-uoj-in-wels.html

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org 

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GJ - McCain fits the old quip - "He looks like he was weaned on a pickle." 

Or more likely - "He was potty-trained at gunpoint."