A Lutheran I know from Ohio phoned to say hello. He was outraged by the teaching of forgiveness without faith. He was reading his way through the entire Book of Concord. Inactive for years, he was back in church and participating in the Means of Grace.
Since we were talking about justification by faith, I suggested that he obtain Luther's Galatians Commentary. He looked over his shelf of books and called out the Luther Romans Commentary, which is rather slender, and said, "There it is. Galatians." He had the commentary that summed up Luther's teaching of the Gospel, and yet most clergy know more about the Grateful Dead than they do about Galatians.
This is the most read post since June of 2010. The second on the list is a collection of Luther quotations. I have nothing against the saints, but Lutherans need a lot more Biblical exposition than they do saint veneration.
Some people get their Friar Tucks in a knot because they fear their bad photographs will be Photoshopped and used to promote sound doctrine. I welcome copying but have no fears about my majestic Photoshops being copied by the fake Lutherans.
Would Paul McCain copy any of my Photoshops and caption them thus? - "Now I see that there is no forgiveness without faith. Thank you for guiding me from the Stygian darkness of UOJ."
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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran Laity - Here Are Some Graphics for You":
The apostates in the Lutheran Synods are caught between a rock and a hard place - every time they open their mouths to defend their false gospel they expose more of it's contradictions and blasphemies. Yet, they can't stop defending it because there are no Lutheran Confessional documents that teach it - if they don't who will?!
Another clear false defense is seen in Buchholz' 2012 UOJ essay.
Buchholz, "We understand the word "justification" to be defined according to a broader sense of the term, so that it is used in reference to the substitution of the righteousness of Christ for the world's sin; the universal verdict of "not-guilty" pronounced upon Christ as the world's substitute; the achievement of the forgiveness of sins for all people; and the personal attribution of forgiveness and imputation of the righteousness of Christ through faith. This is the position articulated by theologians of the former Synodical Conference. The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS), and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod are heirs of this doctrinal position."
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The bolded section teaches that the world has obtained Christ as Mediator for their sins "substitution of the righteousness of Christ for the world's sin". Yet Scripture and the Confessions teach that Christ is Mediator only by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit working faith (the righteousness of Christ) through the Means of Grace.
The Lutheran Confessions
80] AAC That We Obtain The Remission of Sins By Faith Alone In Christ, "The wrath of God cannot be appeased if we set against it our own works, because Christ has been set forth as a Propitiator, so that, for His sake, the Father may become reconciled to us. But Christ is not apprehended as a Mediator except by faith. Therefore, by faith alone we obtain remission of sins when we comfort our hearts with confidence in the mercy promised for Christ's sake."
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_4_justification.php
In addition to this BOC refutation of Buchholz deceptive teaching the BOC defines the only two usages of Justification in Scripture - neither of which applies to the world of unbelievers:
Also, 71] "but we maintain this, that properly and truly, by faith itself, we are for Christ's sake accounted righteous, or are acceptable to God. And because "to be justified" means that out of unjust men just men are made, or born again, it means also that they are pronounced or accounted just. For Scripture speaks in both ways. [The term "to be justified" is used in two ways: to denote, being converted or regenerated; again, being accounted righteous. Accordingly we wish first to show this, that faith alone makes of an unjust, a just man, i.e., receives remission of sins". http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_4_justification.php
Faithful clergy and laity in the Lutheran Synods need to address the heinous false gospel of UOJ being spoon fed to their children to the eternal detriment of their souls.
