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;
Why are the UOJ fanatics driven to oppose, condemn, and confound justification by faith at every turn?
The answer is simple, and it begins with this statement from Luther's sermon on Easter 4.
6. But the Holy Spirit, says Christ, “Will convict the world in respect of sin, because they believe not in me.” Therefore it follows that unbelief is the right and true sin; other sins flow out of unbelief and are even the fruit from this root.
The power of the Holy Spirit in the Word is experienced in the creation of faith. However, when people reject or adulterate the Word, the Holy Spirit also has an effect. The Word is never lacking in its divine impact.
- The Word never returns void.
- The Word always accomplishes God's will.
- The Word always prospers in doing God's work.
Therefore, Word and Spirit are never separate, one never acting without the other.
KJV Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Studying the Word and hearing the Word increases its effect, because the entire Bible "is nothing than a sermon about Christ." The purpose of that Book is to create and sustain faith in Christ and by doing so to grant the grace, peace, forgiveness, and salvation promised in the Gospel.
In other words, the sole purpose of the Scriptures is justification by faith. Anything else is subordinate to justification by faith, so the Sacraments are equally important in their divinely designed object of bringing grace to us as Means of Grace.
For that reason, the Chief Article of the Christian Faith drives the UOJ Stormtroopers insane. And I do mean insane. They claim to be firm in their justification without faith, but justification by faith is the hornet under their cassocks. Justification by faith condemns their unbelief, just as the Gospel condemns Mormons, JWs, and Adventists. When I challenged a JW, he said, "Jim Jones, who killed all those people in the jungle. Wasn't he a Lutheran?" I said, "No, he was a false teacher - like you." He did not make me furious, but my gentle reproof made him react like a freshly-salted garden slug. It tormented him.
Back to UOJ false teachers. They move heaven and earth to make a disciple, as Jesus said about the Pharisees. They invade other denominations to keep someone who teaches justification by faith from having any influence. Jay Webber and Paul McCain have tried in vain to be the new Agricolas, posing for a time as justification by faith wizards but returning to battle sound doctrine at the earliest opportunity.
Richard Jungkuntz was another UOJ fanatic. His WELS essay on the topic is still in the WELS Holy of Holies - the Essay Files. Pause for reflection and sacred awe - until you realize the files also include the work of an atheist because he was a Growther. Jungkuntz championed the cause of UOJ, promoted the rationalistic view of the Scriptures, chaired the board of the first gay Lutheran Seminary (awkwardly named Seminex), and joined ELCA.
The UOJ Hive strikes whenever someone joins a public Lutheran discussion group and dares to teach justification by faith. The Hive gets in an uproar. Hundreds of posts emerge and the faithful Lutherans are called "morons" and banned.
The UOJ Hive is condemned by the Holy Spirit for their unbelief, and that drives them made. It also blinds them. They hate and excommunicate the true Gospel while praising, defending, or obscuring the work of rapists, pedophiles, and serial adulterers.
Even the supposed critics of Church Growth end up defending and protecting from harm the Church Growth leaders in their own sects. They have to, because they are committed to false doctrine, to UOJ, and that dogma binds them all in one ecumenical philosophy.
This hatred and alienation is necessary, to separate the good from the bad. Justification by faith is the Gospel, not an adiaphoron. Contending for the truth will never end, because the Father Below of the UOJ fanatics will never rest, least of all because his time is short.
