Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Can Someone Explain UOJ?":
The necessity of embracing the error that in Christ God the Father has forgiven the world: justified the world, declared them righteous and worthy of eternal life, is to establish the Cross as the place for God's "great exchange".
UOJ teaches the cross, Christ's atonement, is where the sins of the whole world were laid on Christ (this part is Scripturally true) in exchange the whole world received Christ's justification and not-guilty verdict from God the Father (this part is pure rationalism). Various versions of the foundationless doctrine of UOJ will confess variations on the theme - some will say that because the iniquity of the world was laid on Christ then it was taken off of the world - therefore God sees the world as sinless. Other's will make the exchange in regards to Judicial decrees - Christ was guilty of the world's sins in exchange for the world receiving Christ's earned decree from the Father of justified. All versions pervert the Word and teach God was reconciled and forgave the world for Christ's sake - yet, it is only by faith, for Christ's sake, that a believer is acceptable to God as the Confessions confirm.
The foundational reason for locating the unbelieving world's justification at the cross is that individuals do not require faith to be forgiven by God, to be accepted by God and ultimately through logical applications of those teachings to be saved eternally. The famous (W)ELS UOJist and most favorably quoted UOJ theologian, Siegbert W. Becker taught it this way:
But universal and objective justification is one doctrine whose place in the victorious Christian life is clear. Wherever men teach that faith comes first as a condition that must be fulfilled or a work that must be done or even as a fact that must be recognized before forgiven is bestowed or becomes real, men will be trained to look into their own hearts for assurance rather than to the words and promises of God. If my sins are forgiven only if I first have faith then I have no solid foundation on which to rest my hope for eternal life. I must then know that I have faith before I can know that my sins are forgiven.
But there are times when a Christian does not know that he has faith. And many people who think they have faith do not have it, and many that think they are not believers are believing children of God. In regard to our own faith we may be in error or filled with doubt. But there is nothing uncertain in the truth that is proclaimed in the Gospel. Your sin is taken away, wiped out, forgiven, cancelled, swallowed up in the empty grave in Joseph’s garden. To that we must cling. To that we can cling. On that we can build a solid hope that will not make us ashamed." Page 13
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.pdf
I recommend reading the entire essay. It's the most blatant, unapologetic and least camouflaged confession of the UOJ doctrine that is available. Note Becker's admission that faith is a work of man. This perversion of faith is common in the doctrine of UOJ as it struggles to 'justify' itself.
Paul summed up the issue this way: Romans 10: 2-4, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Verse 4 is Justification solely by Faith Alone too.
