Objective and Subjective Justification Are Calvinism
One advocate of
Objective Justification wrote to inform everyone that John Bunyan was a
Calvinist because he used a comparison in The Pilgrim’s Progress, the
hen and the chicks. The common call from the King gives nothing. In the special
call He has something to give. “Therefore,” the writer said, “Bunyan was a
Calvinist.” However, I never wrote in Understanding Pilgrim’s Progress
that Bunyan was a Lutheran, only that his most read book after the Bible was
Luther’s Galatians Commentary. Few in the “conservative” Lutheran
churches would dare to claim the same love for Luther’s classic work – or anything
by Luther, apart from some quips each October.
When Woods, the Calvinist
translator of Knapp’s Halle theology lectures, wanted to explain the professor’s
difficult language, he used terms familiar to his Reformed faith.
Translator's note•
[This is very conveniently expressed by the terms objective and subjective justification. Objective justification is the act of God, by
which he proffers pardon to all through Christ; subjective is the act of man,
by which he accepts the pardon freely offered in the gospel. The former is
universal, the latter not.][1]
If the hen and chicks
comparison makes Bunyan a Calvinist, then the general and particular call make Walther
a member of the same confession. The Synodical Conference adopted these terms
with delight and have filled the WELS Essay Files with 60 or more essays praising
Objective Justification, a term not found in the Bible or the Book of Concord.
The Spirit, the Word, the Means of Grace – The Map Room
Most people find that
tracing the routes of Christian theology is exhausting, frustrating, and
unedifying. My mother read me a book about Sir Archibald where they went
through all the maps in a large room until they found the right one. Sir
Archibald asks, “Why did we go through all these to find one?” The mentor said,
“To teach you patience.” That is a good description of doctoral work in
theology, reading hundreds of books, going over the most important ones,
passing exams, and starting over with a thesis demanding hundreds more books
being read. Exams in Hebrew, Greek, French, and German are included for
entertainment and distraction.
Benjamin Milner argued
that Calvin’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the unifying element in all his
writings. Luther argued the same thing, notably in the Smalcald Articles in the
Book of Concord, which is universally ignored today. Starting with the right
map, Luther’s directions are clear, compelling, and Biblical. The Holy Spirit never
works apart from the Word, and the Word never lacks the efficacy of Spirit.
When someone, whether the Pope, or Calvin, or the Synod President declares doctrine
not found in the Scriptures, he is an Enthusiast, Luther’s word for those who
define Christianity without the teaching of the Scriptures alone. This
separation of Word and Spirit is the source of all false doctrine, all pagan
world religion.
The Biblical Gospel is
preached and taught through the invisible Word, and this Word creates and nurtures
faith in those who listen honestly and sincerely. Faith, as Paul teaches in
Romans, is the meeting place between the Savior and the individual. Through
faith in Christ the listener is declared righteous, forgiven, and saved.
The Sacraments are the
visible Word, freely offered to show us God’s grace and to impart that grace.
For that reason, preaching and teaching and the Sacraments are called Means or
Instruments of Grace. God does not work apart from the Word, whether invisible
or invisible.
Calvin’s map is
dominated by the issue of double-predestination, but that is secondary to his
separation of the Spirit from the Word. Some would say that Calvinism - even all
non-Lutheran Protestants - are defined by making the Sacraments mere symbols, ordinances
to be obeyed.
Benjamin Milner’s Harvard
dissertation became a classic, showing Calvin’s unifying principle in all his works
as the operation of the Spirit separate from the Word.
Quotations About Calvin and By Calvin
"When intent upon
establishing their peculiar tenets, Calvin and Zwingli likewise preferred rational argumentation to the plain proofs of Holy Writ. Their
interpretation of the words of the Sacrament is but one glaring instance; but
there are many more. The schools and the denominations which they founded
became infected with this same disease of theology."
Martin S. Sommer, Concordia Pulpit for 1932, St.
Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1931, p. iii.[2]
J-722
John Calvin, Commentaries,
Amos 8:11-12: "...we are touched with some desire for strong doctrine, it
evidently appears that there is some piety in us; we are not destitute of the
Spirit of God, although destitute of the outward means."
Benjamin Milner, Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Heicko A.Oberman,
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 109. CO, XLIII, 153.
J-723
“Wherefore, with
regard to the increase and confirmation of faith, I would remind the reader
(though I think I have already expressed it in unambiguous terms), that in
assigning this office to the sacraments, it is not as if I thought that there
is a kind of secret
efficacy perpetually inherent in them, by which they can of themselves
promote or strengthen faith, but because our Lord has instituted them for the
express purpose of helping to establish and increase our faith. The sacraments
duly perform their office only when accompanied by the Spirit, the internal Master, whose energy alone
penetrates the heart, stirs up the affections, and procures access for the
sacraments into our souls. If He is wanting, the sacraments can avail us no more than the sun shining on the eyeballs of
the blind, or sounds uttered in the ears of the deaf. Wherefore, in
distributing between the Spirit and the sacraments, I ascribe the whole energy
to Him, and leave only a ministry to them; this ministry, without the agency of
the Spirit, is empty and frivolous, but when He acts within, and exerts His
power, it is replete with energy. ..then, it follows, both that the
sacraments do
not avail one iota without the
energy of the Holy Spirit; and that yet in hearts previously taught by that
preceptor, there is nothing to prevent the sacraments from strengthening and
increasing faith.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 volumes, Grand
Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970, I, p. 497. Also cited in
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 119. Institutes. IV.xiv.9.
J-724
“We must not suppose that there is some latent
virtue inherent in the sacraments by which they, in themselves, confer the
gifts of the Holy Spirit upon us, in the same way in which wine is drunk out of
a cup, since the only office divinely assigned them is to attest and ratify the
benevolence of the Lord towards us; and they avail no farther than accompanied
by the Holy Spirit to open our minds and hearts, and make us capable of
receiving this testimony, in which various distinguished graces are clearly
manifested…They [the sacraments] do not of themselves bestow any grace, but they announce and manifest it, and, like
earnests and badges, give a ratification of the gifts which the divine liberality
has bestowed upon us.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2
volumes, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970, I, p.
503. Institutes, IV, XIV, 17.
J-725
“But assuming that the
body and blood of Christ are attached to the bread and wine, then the one must
necessarily be disservered from the other. For the bread is given separately
from the cup, so the body, united to the bread, must be separated from the
blood, included in the cup.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2
volumes, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970, I, p.
570. Institutes, IV, XVII, 18.
J-726
John Calvin, Institutes IV.xvii.19:
"We must establish such a presence of Christ in the supper as may neither
fasten Him to the element of bread, not enclose Him in bread, not circumscribe
Him in any way (all of which clearly derogate from His heavenly
glory)...."[3]
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the
Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 128.
J-727
John Calvin, True
Method of Reforming the Church: "The offspring of believers are born
holy, because their children, while yet in the womb, before they breathe the
vital air, have been adopted into the covenant of eternal life."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the
Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 123.
J-728
"To remain
properly humble while firmly rejecting all erroneous teachings regarding the
means of grace, we should remind ourselves how even Christians who teach and,
as a rule, also believe, the correct doctrine of the means of grace, in their
personal practice very often lose sight of the means of grace. This is done
whenever they base the certainty of grace, or of the forgiveness of sin, on
their feeling of grace or the gratia infusa, instead of on God's
promise in the objective means of grace. All of us are by nature
'enthusiasts.'"
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols.,
trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953,
III, p. 131.
[1] Georg
Christian Knapp (Halle University), Lectures on Christian Theology,
trans. Leonard Woods. Some have waxed angry that I emphasized the translator’s
words, not Knapp’s, but that is the point. A Pietist has much in common with
the Calvinist. This book was widely known in America while Walther was
promoting Stephan’s dogma. http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/04/knapps-portrait-contributed-bysomeone.html
[2] Note
Kelm's "Lord, Liar, Lunatic" argument which he copied from Josh
McDowell.
[3]
LCMS Lutherans especially should note the distinctive Calvin phrase – “to rob
Him of His glory.” This is the language used by Walther in promoting his
version of double-predestination – Election without Faith.
