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| The heirs of Walther-Stephan-Rambach are now completely divorced from the Means of Grace. They simply repeat their UOJ inanities. |
The UOJ Simpletons avoid
- Justification by Faith
- The Means of Grace, and
- The Efficacy of the Word
the way drunks avoid stepping off a curb. The UOJists know they will tumble and wet themselves in public if they dare take on the basics of John's Gospel, St. Paul, and the Book of Concord.
For a doctoral seminar at Notre Dame, I read dozens of books on the topics of election and grace, which involved Augustine, Pelagius, Calvin, Arminius, Roman Catholics versus the Jansenists - not ot mention Luther, Melanchthon, and others.
Universal Grace is an interesting topic, a concept specifically named by the Sleepy Eye pastor. Everyone in the world is forgiven - past, present, future - before they were born. The timeline is getting tangled already. But when does this take place?
- Walther and Rambach say, the moment Christ rose from the dead, based on their perversion of 1 Timothy 3:16.
- But others say - the moment Christ died on the cross.
- Still others claim - when the angels proclaimed peace on earth.
So we have three different moments of world absolution without faith.
But this tangle battles against the Means of Grace. The Scriptures nowhere name, suggest, or imply Universal Grace. However, the Bible does reveal to us -
The invisible Word of teaching and preaching - and the visible Word of the Sacraments - are the Means or Instruments of God's grace.
How do we know we are forgiven? We know that God distributes the treasure of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit, using these Means or Instruments. The treasure is the atoning death and victorious resurrection of the Savior.
Jesus is the righteousness of God, a righteousness we receive only through faith. We do not honor the grace of God by making unbelievers and apostates the objects.
Justification is not a term to be played with, the way a magician handles his gimmicks to make us believe something that is not true. A good magician can even tell us what he is going to do and make us believe his special abilities allowed him to accomplish it.
The UOJ Magicians and Soothsayers want to change God's justification of the individual believer into Universal Grace. They may call it by the bastard name used by John Sparky Brenner - Abracadabra! -The Justification of the World. Or they may call it by another name never found in the Scriptures or Book of Concord - Shazam! - Objective Justification.
Certainly, the concept of Universal Absolution was already taught by many false teachers before it became the stigmata of the Synodical Conference. Rationalists cling to it, and that is where Pietism emerges from the swamp of Enthusiasm.
Some leave Pietism for the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace, because the Scriptures teach that Gospel with clarity and precision. But others are blinded by the subjectivism of Pietism and long for a reasonable religion. What is more reasonable than saying that everyone is forgiven and saved? What is more popular for the moment? What makes an easier club to subdue those loyal to the Reformation?
All those advantages pale in comparison with the peace that comes from the revealed Gospel in contrast with the fake peace of Universalism. The false prophets say "Peace! Peace!" where there is no peace.
Some people should shudder at what they have done to the Scriptures.
