The Biblical View of Faith Contradicts UOJ Claims

UOJ has little to say about faith - except in the negative mode. The Enthusiasts warn people against faith. They question faith. In the end, they jump at the departing justification by faith boat, but too late. That which they loathe is far beyond their reach. They sink with watery groan in the ocean of doubt and despair, maddened by their own inconsistencies and contradictions.

The Analogy of Faith teaches us that the Bible, as God's Word, contains no errors or contradictions. The Scriptures must be read as a whole, as a unified message of truth, because the Bible is the Book of the Holy Spirit, not a collection of verses strung together. One part explains the other, without discord.

Biblical faith means trust in God, specifically in what He has done for us in Christ. Paul urges Christians to rely upon the atoning death of the Savior.

The Apostle Paul

KJV 2 Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

Paul taught the Means of Grace in Romans, showing that the fruit of preaching the Gospel is faith, forgiveness, and salvation. Try to wedge "I was saved 2,000 years ago" into this passage:

KJV Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The Means of Grace generate faith in those who hear the Gospel message of Christ crucified:

KJV Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Faith must be something good in Paul's writing, since he offered Abraham as the prime example of faith, of justification by faith. Faith in God's promise was accounted as forgiveness, before and without the Law.

KJV Romans 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

This example matters because we are no different from Abraham. If we believe in Christ, we are forgiven.

KJV Romans 4:23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 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 ending of Romans 4 is summarized by the opening of Romans 5, leaving no doubt about access to God's grace, for how can anyone be forgiven or even pre-forgiven (Mark and Avoid Jeske) apart from grace?


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.

Child-like Faith


The faith Jesus commended to us is a child-like faith, not the speculations of philosophers and snake-oil salesmen.

KJV Mark 10:14 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 15 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

The Gospel of John emphasizes faith: beginning, middle, and end.

Beginning. The message is not to make a decision in favor of world-absolution, but to receive, to welcome, to trust in the Redeemer.

KJV John 1:11 He came unto his own, and His own received Him not. 12 But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name:

Middle. This passage clearly reveals that faith is salvation, that not believing in the Son is condemnation. Only the perverted could turn this passage into UOJ.

KJV John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.

The Good Shepherd defined sin as not believing. The Holy Spirit works through the Law and Gospel, through Word and Sacrament, for one purpose - to convict us of our unbelief, to reprove us for not trusting completely in Christ alone, to remind us that unbelief is the foundational sin that fuels all other sin.

KJV John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on Me; 10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see Me no more; 11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

Ending of John. How can someone read any portion of the Fourth Gospel and insist that world-absolution is taught? John 1:29 does not promote UOJ, because the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world also condemns those who do not receive, trust, or believe in the Gospel. Unbelievers are not forgiven or even pre-forgiven (as Master Heretic Jeske teaches). Unbelievers are already condemned, born condemned (not born forgiven) but given the Gospel freely so the Holy Spirit will move them to faith and forgiveness.

KJV John 20:30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His Name.

Why No Galatians Commentary from CPH?

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Faith, Imputation, Christ, Righteousness - Joined ...":

Ichabod -

Why can't CPH publish a new edition of Luther's Galatian's Commentary? Or, would all that "faith stuff" (contained therein) be anathema to the ever loving Mother Mary lactating statue admirer, who is now known as, McNasty?

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/09/mcnasty-fruit-of-unfaith.html

I can't help but think that if such a new published edition were finally realized; - and, it was truly read and received; there might be a great falling away of McCaininites........

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org

St. Ambrose Misquoted To Support UOJ

This is the crown jewel of UOJ in the Book of Concord?
No, it is a repudiation of UOJ.

And on this account let no one boast of works, because no one is justified by his deeds. But he who is righteous has it given him because he was justified after the laver [of Baptism]. Faith, therefore, is that which frees through the blood of Christ, because he is blessed "whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
covered," Ps. 32:1,104] These are the words of Ambrose, which clearly favor our doctrine; he denies justification to works, and ascribes to faith that it sets us free through the blood of Christ. Let all the Sententiarists, who are adorned with magnificent titles, be collected into one heap. For some are called angelic; others, subtile, and others irrefragable [that is, doctors who cannot err.] When all these have been read and reread, they will not be of as much aid for understanding Paul as is this one passage of
Ambrose.

Apology of the Augsburg Confession, IV: That We Obtain Remission of Sins by Faith Alone in Christ,
#104ff.

***

GJ - When the UOJ Enthusiasts crack open the Book of Concord, it only opens to one spot, right here. And they only quote the first part of the paragraph, which suits their perverted Gospel - a Gospel which is not Gospel to fit a faith which is no faith.

Melanchthon was contending against justification by works, proving justification by faith from Ambrose, one of the Doctors of the Church for the papal party. This entire article on justification is a defense of justification by faith, and the title of this section makes that even clearer (for those who graduated from Mequon) -

That We Obtain Remission of Sins by Faith Alone in Christ.

In the craft of writing, one does not simply make a point and let it hang. Melanchthon was a gifted theological writer and a scholar of Greek and Latin. He wrote paragraphs, not verses. A paragraph has a beginning, middle, and an end. This one builds to a climax focusing on Ambrose as a Doctor of the Church, a Doctor of Justification by Faith.  Jay Webber and his vicar, Jon Buchholz, take that justification by faith away through subterfuge, since the plain words of the paragraph condemn both MDivs as Sententiarists.

I have pity for Buchholz and Webber, because they have so little research and writing behind them. They are like children sent to Piggly-Wiggly with a credit card to buy groceries for the family. They come home with bags of marshmallows, candied apples, Fruit Loop cereal, orange juice, chocolate milk, Fritos, and hot dogs.  They have all the food groups, but selected with such ignorance that the results are junk. Their selective arguments are junk, too.

Webber and Buchholz are the new Sententiarists. They gather their self-serving quotations, to keep everyone in the dark. After a period of time, enough names and quotations can be collected and used selectively to prove anything.

Eduard Preuss, the Bo Derek of aging UOJ champions, knew how to do this. First he worked on Lutheran orthodoxy. Then he taught Walther's UOJ at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Finally, he taught papal falsehoods for the Church of Rome. Asked about his change, he said, "Give me the quotations and I can prove anything."

I have gathered as much UOJ material as possible, with the help of others, to show what has been taught and where it started. The UOJ Enthusiasts deceptively drill through the Pietism base to discover UOJ in the Book of Concord and in the NNIV. But their layer of proof is from Halle Pietism and the graduates of Halle Pietism. This can be clearly shown in the arguments in favor of universal forgiveness without faith: Rambach, Knapp, Tholuck, Schleiermacher, and Barth.

In other words, I want everyone to read UOJ statements.

But the UOJ Stormtroopers want justification by faith attacked, silenced, and metaphorically burned at the stake. The difference should be telling.

Faith, Imputation, Christ, Righteousness - Joined Together

Here it is to be noted, that these three things, faith, Christ, acceptation, or imputation, must be joined together. Faith taketh hold of Christ, and hath Him present, and holdeth Him enclosed, as the ring doth the precious stone.  And whosever shall be found having this confidence in Christ apprehended in the heart, him will God accept for righteous. This is the mean and this is the merit whereby we attain the remission of sins and righteousness.

Because thou believest in Me, saith the Lord, and thy faith layeth hold upon Christ, whom I have freely given unto thee, that He might be thy Mediator and High Priest, therefore be thou justified and righteous. Wherefore God doth accept or account us as righteous only for our faith in Christ.

Martin Luther, Krebel, Galatians 2:15-16, p. 71

These and like errors, one and all, we unanimously reject as contrary to the clear Word of God, and by God's grace abide firmly and constantly in the doctrine of the righteousness of faith before God, as it is embodied, expounded, and proved from God's Word in the Augsburg Confession, and the Apology issued after it. Formula of Concord, SD, III, 66.

Galatians Commentary

To paraphrase Luther, I would kiss Pope Paul's feet
and carry him in my arms,
if He conceded that we are justified by faith alone.

quercuscontramalum (http://quercuscontramalum.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "The Promises Are Offered in the Gospel, And Faith ...":

(from Luther's Commentary on Galatians 2:6, quoting the sentences immediately before those in your Pope graphic)

"I know that a Christian should be humble, but against the Pope I am going to be proud and say to him: 'You, Pope, I will not have you for my boss, for I am sure that my doctrine is divine.' Such pride against the Pope is imperative, for if we are not stout and proud we shall never succeed in defending the article of the righteousness of faith."

UOJ Enthusiasts Malign Faith: One Error Leads to Many Others

THE TRUE RULE OF CHRISTIANITY
Contrary to these vain trifles and doting dreams, we teach faith, and give a true rule of Christian divinity in this sort: first, that a man must be taught by the law to know himself, that so he may learn to say with the prophet “All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); also “There is none righteous, no not one; (Romans 3:10-11); also, “Against Thee only have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4)...

Here now the sinner beginneth to sigh, and saith in this wise: who then can give succour? For he being thus terrified by the law, utterly despaireth of his own strength: he looketh about and sigheth for the help of another, of a Mediator and Saviour. Here then cometh in good time the healthful Word of
the Gospel, and saith, “Son, thy sins are forgiven thee” (St. Matt. 9:2). Believe in Jesus Christ, crucified for they sins. If thou feel thy sins, and the burden thereof, look not upon them in thyself, but remember that they are translated and laid upon Christ (Isa. 53:5). This is the beginning of health and salvation.

By this means we are delivered from sin, justified and made inheritors of everlasting life, not for our own works and deserts, but for our faith, whereby we lay hold upon Christ.

Martin Luther, Kregel, Galatians 2:15-16, p. 69f.

***

GJ - Luther warned everyone against the dreams of the philosophers, the invented distinctions of His Holiness, the Antichrist.

But the ignorant, foolish, and deluded UOJ Enthusiasts run to their  OJ and their SJ, much like the papal condign and congruous merit labels, and pet them over and over. OJ and SJ are their toy poodles, so adorable and harmless. Anyone against OJ poodle and SJ poodle is a an obvious poodle-hater and must be consigned to the lowest depths of Hell with all those guilt-free saints.

From their double-justification labels (from Halle University Pietism and a Calvinist translator) they leap into nasty personal attacks. Heaven forbid they would crack a Book of Concord, a Luther commentary, or Luther's English Bible (the KJV).

Medium Rare pointed out, months ago, that the primary error of UOJ was their blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. John 16:8ff shows how true this is. Christ Jesus defined sin as the Holy Spirit convicting the world that they do not utterly trust in Him.

Sin is not denying OJ! Every time I see that claim, delivered with great indignation, I laugh.

The most obvious sin of UOJ, besides blasphemy, is turning something good - faith - into something dark and terrible. At the end of their diatribes they have a toss-away line, "you gotta believe this UOJ," but that is nothing more than an additional perversion.

Later I will spend more time on faith itself, but I want to point out what one observer said. "They separate all those things that belong together - the Gospel, the Means of Grace, election, the Holy Spirit, faith. They are all connected."

That is a philosophical mindset, one that eventually killed off orthodoxy and paved the way for Pietism. The fading orthodoxy of Europe turned each Latin label into a new skirmish, so studying for the ministry was a tedious lesson in philosophical polemics.

The Pietists drew large crowds simply by opening the Bible and working through the actual content of the Bible. The Word of God is efficacious. When given a choice between Pietism, philosophical polemics and its cousin, rationalism, many chose Pietism.

After the Deluge

Not if they teach justification without faith.
Their public teaching places them outside of Christianity but happy as clams with ELCA.
And they are.

Faith Apprehends Jesus Christ

quercuscontramalum (http://quercuscontramalum.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Luther - Without Faith":

"We say, faith apprehends Jesus Christ. Christian faith is not an inactive quality in the heart. If it is true faith it will surely take Christ for its object. Christ, apprehended by faith and dwelling in the heart, constitutes Christian righteousness, for which God gives eternal life.

"In contrast to the doting dreams of the scholastics, we teach this: First a person must learn to know himself from the Law. With the prophet he will then confess: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." And, "there is none that doeth good, no, not one." And, "against thee, thee only, have I sinned."

"Having been humbled by the Law, and having been brought to a right estimate of himself, a man will repent. He finds out that he is so depraved, that no strength, no works, no merits of his own will ever deliver him from his guilt. He will then understand the meaning of Paul's words: "I am sold under sin"; and "they are all under sin."

"At this state a person begins to lament: "Who is going to help me?" In due time comes the Word of the Gospel, and says: "Son, thy sins are forgiven thee. Believe in Jesus Christ who was crucified for your sins. Remember, your sins have been imposed upon Christ."

"In this way are we delivered from sin. In this way are we justified and made heirs of everlasting life."

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/gal/web/gal2-14.html

Without Apology - WELS, Missouri, and the SynConference Fragments

2138 has left a new comment on your post "The Promises Are Offered in the Gospel, And Faith ...":

From the Apology, Justification:

“5] All Scripture ought to be distributed into these two principal topics, the Law and the promises. For in some places it presents the Law, and in others the promise concerning Christ, namely, either when [in the Old Testament] it promises that Christ will come, and offers, for His sake, the remission of sins, justification, and life eternal, or when, in the Gospel [in the New Testament], Christ Himself, since He has appeared, promises the remission of sins, justification, and life eternal.”

Note that “justification” is sandwiched between “the remission of sins” and “life eternal.” UOJ proponents are quick to deny charges of “universalism,” but then how does one explain “life eternal” in this context, not once, but twice? If this is “subjective justification,” then where is “objective justification”?

Apology, Justification:

“67] But God cannot be treated with, God cannot be apprehended, except through the Word. Accordingly, justification occurs through the Word, just as Paul says, Rom. 1:16: The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Likewise Rom. 10:17: Faith cometh by hearing. And proof can be derived even from this that faith justifies, because, if justification occurs only through the Word, and the Word is apprehended only by faith, it follows that faith justifies.”

Am I to believe that this section is merely speaking of “subjective justification”? Because I’m pretty sure that those unbelievers out there who are “objectively justified” are rejecting or oblivious to the Word, through which “justification occurs only,” and which “is apprehended only by faith.” Again, if this is “subjective justification,” then where is “objective justification”?

Don’t any Lutherans even read the Apology anymore?

***

GJ - In WELS, where they have declared war against justification by faith; the Wauwatosa rejection of the creeds has fueled their doctrinal indifference. That is why Tiefel and Company could adopt the feminist Creeds and pretend they were forced to do it. All the WELS pastors went along with and bought Christian Worship.

The Universalists were honest in their Universalism. UOJ is universalistic and denies it.

The path of deterioration does not vary. The Pietists put love above sound doctrine. Georg Knapp produced the lectures that led to a Calvinist, Woods, describing the system as two justifications: Objective Justification and Subjective Justification.

Knapp denied that the orthodox definition of the Trinity was Biblical. In the next generation at Halle University, Tholuck embraced Universalism. Scheiermacher, at Halle, became pivotal for modern theology, offering an elaboration of faith without belief - writing voluminously about Christianity without believing a word of it.

Selling the NNIV allows WELS to get rid of the Bible
with the Bible - and make a few bucks.