I began with the Graebner version of Luther's Galatians Commentary, creating these graphics. I started over with the Kregel edition and have forty graphics already, from Kregel alone.
I am engaged in a fruitless search for Universal Objective Justification in Luther or Chemnitz or Melanchthon or the Book of Concord or Chytraeus or Leyser or A. Hunnius or Gerhard.
The UOJ champions have proved themselves singularly inept at dealing with Biblical and doctrinal issues. In every aptitude test (a nice turn on pastoral requirements, eh?) the student is given a paragraph to read and questions to answer from it. Reading comprehension is measured by the ability of the student to glean information from that paragraph. The UOJ Enthusiasts take a paragraph from the Book of Concord (the Ambrose nugget) or Scripture (Romans 4) and inject their UOJ opinions.
The Ambrose nugget is found in an article about justification by faith, a section about justification by faith, a paragraph about justification by faith. The Enthusiasts isolate atonement language and say, "Aha! Justification without faith is clearly taught in the Book of Concord, in the Apology (Defense) of the Augsburg Confession." Certainly - the pioneer of forensic justification, drawn to Luther by a common confession, giving up a priceless library from his uncle Reuclin, switched from justification by faith to justification without faith, not even realizing it.
Are the UOJ fanatics apt to teach, a requirement for pastors? No. Worse than that, they doggedly defend the indefensible, sharing their stupidity with trusting students, pastors, and laity. Would it be too much to ask them to study the original documents without their talking points beside them? Yes, it would. They actively persecute the Gospel in the name of the Gospel. But they cannot win. Attacking the Word of God is even more foolish than breaking into a power station to steal copper lines. Bad things will happen.
Another key passage for the UOJ is Romans 4:25, but not Romans 4:24. In fact, forget Romans 4 altogether. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to promote UOJ in Romans 4:25 and departed. That must be true because the LCMS Brief Statement and all UOJ treatises cite Romans 4:25 in support of their dogma.
KJV Romans 4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
The UOJ Professors are more deceitful than the global warming enthusiasts. Romans 4 and this verse emphasize first that Abraham was justified by faith, without his own merit, without the Law. The key word is imputed, which can be translated as reckoned or counted.
Romans 4:24-25 reveals that this example applies to us also, for we are counted forgiven if we believe... The Holy Spirit teaches what the UOJ Stormtroopers deny. As their hero Eduard Preuss claimed, "Give me the documents and I can prove anything." He said that after proving the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a Roman dogma he had refuted previously.
To make it simple, as a reading and writing exercise - look at the Bible as a literary effort. A well written essay or book must have coherence. That comes from complete sentences, good paragraph structure, obvious chapter breaks. The rationalists will say, "But the New Testament does not use our punctuation and grammar. The original texts were not neat little paragraphs with chapter and verse headings." That is true but irrelevant, because there are clear themes, definite breaks, and all the hallmarks of good writing. The illiterates who specialize in repeating SynConference dogma, Walther mythology, and other silliness.
Reading comprehension is lacking when UOJ Stormtroopers ignore the theme of Romans 4 to make their point, overlooking the obvious conclusion of that chapter, the very essence of the Reformation:
KJV Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
The fraudulent nature of UOJ Enthusiasm is on display, once again, with the way they try to claim justification by faith for their alien, anti-Christian religion. But they cannot. The more they rail against justification by faith while using the term, the more they harden their hearts and blind themselves. The Word of God is always effective. Teach the Word and it will convert or harden, blind or enlighten.
Teach against the Word and dire things will follow. The Lutheran synods of America are Dead On Arrival. They steal millions from their members to waste on their own riotous living. They make a show of hating all other confessions of faith while working with all religions and no religions. They pile up lawsuits for their abusive conduct and issue absolution for their worst criminals (if they are friends or relatives).
LPC has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran Synods--WELS, LCMS, ELS, ELCA, CLC (sic)-...":
True, not only are we accounted forgiven but we are accounted righteous as righteous as Christ, as if we have never broken the Law at all because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, because we are in him through faith via the Means of Grace.
We are treated as righteous.
LPC
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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran Synods--WELS, LCMS, ELS, ELCA, CLC (sic)-...":
Dr. Cruz -
Very well put! But, this simple explanation apparently flies in the face of those universal objective justification [work's righteous] enthusiasts who make it their non Scriptural business to pervert the order - and, leave out faith:
They say (essentially) that the child of God is righteous because Christ's Atonement imputed to him forgiveness [justification] via the Means of Grace. They say that and actually believe that, because Scriptural God given Holy Spirit "faith" is a dirty word to them!
They are so paranoid that this faith could become personal to the individual! Horrors! St. Paul is to be admired when he said that he had fought the fight; kept the faith and finished the course; - that's all fine and good; because, that was the Apostle Paul! But, for a UOJ enthusiast to say that his faith is personal - oh.....that would be anathema to fellow McCaininites! Can't do that - rather damn those Ichabod people!
They eschew "faith" because to them a Christian's personal faith usurps their view of the totality of Christ's Atonement. They then err when they go about preaching: "Just tell your neighbors that God loves them and that He has forgiven them!" The implications of this inept mentality is staggering. A "decision mentality" then is the outcome. Just accept that Christ has done all this for you, is their modus operandi cry. Their adherence to UOJ then becomes an aggressive forced "theology of mental assent," rather, than God - given Holy Spirit, [born from above] granted and bestowed, faith.
Nathan M. Bickel
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
