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| Funny how people erase (kilcrease) what they have written. |
My second post on the "Confessional" Lutheran Forum's UOJ.
First Post on the "Confusional" Lutheran Forum's UOJ
And...it seems to be gone. Laity posting and refuting the UOJ perps made the false teachers look silly, confused, and dishonest.
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| The laity know the Scriptures better than the self-appointed UOJ hucksters. Non-clergy are trained by the Word, not brained by the bullies of Universalism, so they ask for Justification by Faith posts. |
Dr. Jackson,
Good post. This has been pretty much my assessment, except maybe there might be a realignment across synod lines --maybe, won't hold my breath on that one.
"As I wrote before, the strength of Missouri is its lack of unity."
I think back with some irony that a couple of decades ago that the strength of the WELS was its unity, but now it is clear that it's a stumbling block.....and a serious one. And, even the well meaning pastors in the WELS are too timid to stand up for the faith, rather they stand up for the synod. They are a very tight bunch. There are a few mavericks, but they are older men.
This UOJ thing really seemed OK on the surface when it was presented to me years ago as the OJ/SJ package, but after reading your posts I've taken another look at it, and I have to ask myself why??? Why do they need to defend this thing so badly?
They'll tell you that without it somehow the work of Christ is diminished, but I submit the effect is quite the opposite because it cheapens the Gospel. Why? Because by declaring the world justified it becomes impersonal, since SJ (or more properly, justification by faith) is left as a footnote. Indeed, UOJ depersonalizes the Gospel as it lumps people together. It's all the same. Certainly all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but I believe that passage isn't a corporate application -- no real help to the guy with a burdened conscience. He may be making comparisons to others, and the groupthink is no help to him. He needs to know that his sins are forgiven.....even his sins are forgiven. This is the beauty of the Gospel as it justifies by faith. He knows that we are not judged corporately, so why would he buy corporate justification or forgiveness. We're not talking about pronouncing forgiveness in a church service; we're talking about UOJ.
I believe this UOJ belittles a man's sins in a destructive way when it lumps them all together. Sin is personal -- not corporate. Simply stating that Jesus made atonement for the whole world doesn't in any way belittle. 2 Corinthians 5:21 really gets overworked, and if it were to fit UOJ it might read: "For the world's sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that the world might become the righteousness of God" -- which is preposterous, but how else can anyone come to the conclusion that the world is justified. After all, a man is either justified or not. Does a man have to be double justified to be justified?!?
Again, I don't see why we need UOJ, and I certainly don't see this fear of fideism. Faith in Christ isn't faith in faith. And, faith isn't a work -- it can't be. A man either trusts God or not. He can't just arbitrarily decide to believe. The Word does the work. Period.
