I was reading the WELS Essay File specimens on justification, which seem to focus on objective justification alone, no matter what the title. There is not enough coffee in the world to get me through all the essays. The ones I have read share the same characteristics:
- Declaring something to be true without any effort to support the argument.
- Butchering the Scriptures to shoehorn their opinions into the Word of God.
- Mangling the English language to turn something clear and plain into a bunch of knots that only the elite, as they imagine themselves to be, can unravel the meaning.
- Ignoring the content of Scriptures.
- Bypassing the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, and the Formula of Concord.
- Using recent dreadful writings as the final authority, because these scribbles agree with their false doctrine of universal forgiveness without faith.
In general, WELS essays are not good compositions. They feature writing at the lowest level I experience - in teaching many various classes at two universities, undergraduate and graduate school alike. Poor writers tend to inflate their sentences, so they seem more significant or intellectual, but that only makes matters worse. Paine kept us in the Revolutionary War by opening his essay with eight one-syllable words - "These are the times that try men's souls..."
“Men, what must I do to be saved?” the jailer at Philippi asked Paul and Silas. It’s the
most important question anyone can ask. The answer is the teaching we call “subjective
justification.” This doctrine tells us how a person comes to possess the salvation gained by Christ
on the cross. In Paul’s words it is expressed simply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you
will be saved.” In subjective justification, God applies to the individual sinner through faith the
objective justification granted to the whole world in Christ. “God so loved the world that he gave
his one and only Son (objective justification) that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life” (subjective justification).
The ELS-WELS and the ignorant sections of the LCMS want people to believe this SJ is justification by faith, but that is misleading. They hate justification by faith. This formula means believing in universal forgiveness and salvation.
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| Waltherian does not mean "Lutheran." The term originally meant pimping ho's for Bishop Stephan, STD. |
For them, the atonement is universal forgiveness and universal salvation.
Here is Jon Buchholz pontificating on the same topic, at the end of page 1.
The terms objective justification and subjective justification came out of this controversy, as the
theologians of the Missouri and Wisconsin Synods grappled with how best to express the justification won at the cross as a completed reality, while maintaining the necessity of faith as the receiving organ that grasps the
imputed righteousness of Christ offered in the gospel.
By mixing terms up--in their confusion and deception--they make the universal atonement or redemption serve as the universal forgiveness and salvation of mankind. As many orthodox Lutheran theologians were anxious to show, the righteousness of Christ does not come to people except through the Gospel received in faith. Justification in the Bible and in the Book of Concord only mean justification by faith. See the quotation by Quenstedt below.
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| Quenstedt's statement, quoted by Robert Preus, repudiates the claims made by WELS-ELS and some misguided Missourians. |
In these two WELS essays--and all other eructations by WELS/ELS--justification never means by faith. The SJ construction is always - universal forgiveness accepted by the individual. Or - "I agree the entire world has already been forgiven and saved." The Universalists and ELCA teach this is the true meaning of grace, and so do all mainline denominations of the modern era.
Do you object? Here is Buchholz asserting this Universalism -
Lutheran teaching has always
pointed the troubled sinner away from himself to a completed salvation that exists completely outside himself.
Like the Roman Pope, this little Antichrist asserts his false doctrine has always been taught. And what is this ancient dogma? - completed salvation. The entire world is forgiven and saved. Buchholz repeats this endlessly, but denied to my face that WELS had a banner saying to the public, "We are saved, just like you." Those words were used as "evangelism" and also by Wayne Mueller at the WELS Youth Convention in Columbus, claiming evangelism was easy because all one had to say was, "You are already forgiven."
This is why WELS goes on a rampage whenever justification by faith seems to be making headway, ignoring the fact that the Gausewitz Catechism, used by WELS for decades, taught justification by faith.
The next time you find yourself lying awake in the pre-dawn darkness, thinking of the passage of time,
contemplating your own mortality, and reflecting upon the approaching appointment you have with a just and
holy God, your only unassailable assurance of salvation is the unchanging truth that Jesus lived, died and rose
again to justify the world—and the world includes you!
The objective reality of justification for the world that was achieved at the cross does not change with
the roller coaster of human emotion.
God has declared all sinners righteous in His eyes for the sake of Jesus, who took away
the sin of the world (objective justification). Yet not all people ultimately enjoy the benefits of
God’s declaration.
"All sinners" really means "the entire world," but that phrase falls harshly on unwaxed ears, so the damage is mitigated with "sinners." We are all sinners, so that seems to be a Christian statement. However, the deceiver, following his Father Below, must take away the meaning of justification by faith to insert Universalism, watered down by the second sentence. But that second sentence means all people are forgiven and saved, but those who do not acknowledge this Universalism are roasting in Hell. Gaylin Schmeling in the ELS echoed this blasphemy from JP Meyer when teaching at Bethany Lutheran Seminary.
Once Universalism is introduced, it will dominate. Faith is bad, these yahoos teach. Believing in Christ is treated as a "work," especially by those misled by CFW Walther, who was trained in rationalism and Pietism - never in Lutheran doctrine.
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| All those who teach UOJ, OJ/SJ, are Enthusiasts, as defined by Luther in the Book of Concord. |
