I did not join the discussion because I was kicked off the board some time ago. I impetuously said that a Southern Seminary education (ELCA) explained all I needed to know about one moderator's position. That seminary is now a college department.
I posted large parts of the discussion because one of our church members wanted to see how UOJ hucksters argued their case.
My second post on the "Confessional" Lutheran Forum's UOJ.
First Post on the "Confusional" Lutheran Forum's UOJ
Rolf Preus is a great authority on UOJ. I can tell because he always links his own blog as the last word on the topic, in hopes of boosting his monthly pageviews above two digits. However, he offers no evidence of studying the topic or reading Justification and Rome, which he supposedly edited with his brother.
Rolf is terribly offended that I quote his father's last book. He must have confused Justification and Rome with their private Preus Family publishing effort. Scholarly books are meant to be studied, debated, and quoted, with or without the approval of kin.
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| A running joke is Jay Webber's ceaseless praise of Jon-Boy Buchholz as a theologian. Compared to Jay's middler-year abilities, it must be awe-inspiring. |
The funnest part of the discussion came when Webber and others wanted to compare the slant of obscure theologians on the topic, to determine why one branch of UOJ was better than another. Navigating between those "bad and good expressions" of OUJ is like picking a favorite toxin. Buchholz stood before the WELS convention and declared the entire world was forgiven and saved. "Period. End of story." No rocks were thrown, no tomatoes tossed. In WELS, those projectiles are saved for anyone teaching the Chief Article, Justification by Faith.
Anyone can start with a key Justification by Faith passage and move back and forth across the Scriptures to add insights and perspective.
These hipsters must have excellent vision, because they can find UOJ in the midst of a Justification by Faith passage. Better, they can only remember a citation and a phrase, ignoring its context. Relentless Rolf Preus repeated "raised for our justification Romans 4:25" for years. Thus a convention document, the Brief Statement of 1932, welded Romans 4:25 into many a seminarian's brain.
Did they stop to study Romans 4? Seminary supposedly teaches young brains to work on the New Testament in Greek. The chapter is so clear:
- Abraham was justified by faith. He believed the Messianic Promises about being the father of many nations, a pivotal issue in John 8 - "Before Abraham was, I AM."
- Abraham is not alone in having righteousness imputed (counted). Imputation is another name for God's declaration.
- If we believe (a bitter pill for UOJ) in the One who raised Him from the dead, we are also forgiven. He was delivered for our sins and raised for our justification.
Is not the resurrection of Christ the foundation of our faith in Him? No other event in the Bible gathers together so many Promises and reveals the power of God so well. Romans 4 is not only a faith chapter, but also a Justification by Faith chapter, summarized by Romans 5:1-2.
Romans 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
5 Therefore* being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
*Therefore, in Greek, is a soft bridge between one statement and another. The Bible does not use chapter and verse numbers but grammatical signals, like "therefore." To find UOJ in Romans 4:25 is a prodigal feat of obstinate blindness, since Romans 5 is the definition and explanation of Romans 4:24-25 as Justification by Faith.
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| Grace is "world absolution" in the mind of Bishop Stephan's disciple and enabler. ELCA agrees with Walther about this. |
So these peddlers of pedestrian poison insist that here and there - throughout the Bible - God inserts their foundational dogma, that all are are forgiven and saved without faith, just so some can hear this and make a decision for world absolution without faith. This is the only dogmatic formula that excludes faith completely and dares to hide in the shadow of the sola list - by Scripture alone, by grace alone, by faith alone. True, we can grant UOJ artists a few examples of sola:
- Without reading
- Without comprehension
- Without spiritual discernment
- Without Luther
- Without Melanchthon
- Without Andreae
- Without Chytraeus
- Without Chemnitz
- Without P. Leyser
- Without Gerhard
- Without Henry E. Jacobs
- Without Krauth
- Without Schmauk
- Without the 1905 Missouri catechism
- Without Gausewitz
- Without the last book of Robert Preus, Justification and Rome.
Lest this jeremiad be incomplete, it should be mentioned that the UOJ parasites grossly insult the Biblical doctrines of grace and faith, making it appear that one is the enemy of the other.
Thus they stumble about, like blindfolded drunks in a shop, breaking everything but somehow finding the cash register and emptying it of all but the pennies.
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| Thus God is passing judgment on WELS for repudiating the Gospel and selling their hideous New NIVs to cover up the stench. |
