 |
| Pope John the Malefactor is infallible, and he extends the Left Foot of Fellowship willy-nilly. http://els.org/about/what-is-a-lutheran-2/ |
All people are sinners and would perish eternally without God’s help. The good news is that God has provided all of this help as a free gift. God’s saving grace is His undeserved love for all people through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. God loves all people, of every nation and race equally. It is God the Father’s desire for all people to hear His Word, to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, as their only Savior, and therefore to have eternal life. Jesus lived a holy life in our place and died on the cross for the forgiveness of all our sins. Through this completed work of Jesus [GJ - universal absolution without faith], God the Father sees the whole world as not guilty, or justified. This teaching of “justification” is the central truth of the Bible. [GJ - Not one citation, because there are none.]
Lutherans believe that faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for eternal salvation.
This faith in Jesus, who is both God and man, our Savior, comes only as God, the Holy Spirit, works through God’s Word and Baptism in a person’s heart. We believe we sinners cannot come to faith through our own power, but that our faith is accomplished only by the power of the Holy Spirit as He connects us to Jesus as the Savior.[GJ - Fairly lame and clumsy, even for the sidekick of WELS.]
 |
| One more time, class - Who first said this? - Luther. Who seconded this? - Melanchthon. Who reiterated this? - the Formula of Concord. |
Who Redefined the Chief Article - Cheaply. Dishonestly. Cowardly?
The Primary Doctrine in Its Primary Setting: Objective Justification
and Lutheran Worship
[Prepared for the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music and the Arts
Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin, July Wisconsin, July 23, 1996. By Forrest L. Bivens]
The article of justification is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of
doctrines; it preserves and governs all church doctrine and raises up our consciences before God. Without this
article the world is utter darkness and death.”1
Luther’s appraisal of the doctrine of justification is also ours. We
hold it to be the primary doctrine of Scripture, that is, the central and most important teaching revealed by God
for us sinners.2
The truth of justification, above all others, distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. If this
teaching were obscured or lost, attempts to show significant differences between the Christian religion and
others would ultimately prove to be futile. Also, as revealed and emphasized in the Bible, all other doctrines
either prepare for or flow from this chief article of faith. Without this truth, all others would mean little. This
doctrine is the source or basis of the benefits and blessings which mankind receives from God.
[GJ - Oh, Oh, Oh, Frosty - define the Master and Prince, the Lord, the Ruler, the Judge of all kinds of doctrine for us.]
What precisely is this “master and prince, lord, ruler and judge” over other doctrines? Justification is a
declaratory act of God, in which he pronounces sinners righteous. As revealed in the Bible, this declaration of
God is made totally by grace and on account of Jesus Christ and his substitutionary life and death on behalf of
mankind. To phrase it somewhat differently, God has justified acquitted or declared righteous the whole world
of sinners. He has forgiven them. They have been reconciled to God; their status in his eyes has been changed
from that of sinner to forgiven sinner for the sake of Jesus Christ. Since all this applies to all people, the term universal or general justification is used. In our circles an alternate term, objective justification, is also used. If
justification is universal, it must also be objective - sinners are forgiven whether they believe it or not. This is
precisely what Scripture teaches in Romans 3:23-24, when it says, “There is no difference, for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus."
 |
| This is the Roman Catholic approach to dogma, which appears as needed. |
