Martin Luther Never Endorsed John 1:29 as Red Meat for UOJ

I was studying the Kregel edition of Luther's Galatians Commentary, waiting in the doctor's office. This was more involved, with a new specialist, so I had plenty of time.

As I wrote many times before, Galatians is large and dense because it is a commentary on the entire Bible, not just the verses in Galatians. The book is a summary of Luther's Gospel teaching, aimed at preventing errors in the future.

The Book of Concord and Luther agreed in seeing Galatians as a definitive statement about Christian doctrine and the Chief Article, which is justification by faith, not justification without faith.

Those who parade around as experts on justification, quoting John 1:29 to prove their point, should read the Galatians Commentary on John 1:29, starting page 165 in the Kregel paperback edition. It can be found in the section on Galatians 3:13.

I am simply going to mention this now, and go into detail later. John 1:29, according to Luther, does not mean "bear the sins of the world" in the sense of absolving all unbelievers, as the UOJ Hive claims.
The UOJ dogma is another case of turning the meaning of a passage upside-down. The UOJ spin can certainly qualify as a fallacy of emphasis, by inventing a world absolution when the revelation is about atonement.

I know everyone has a Kregel, so they can go over those pages carefully before I write more.

Jack Must Kilcrease, Paul Must Increase

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/10/cannot-spell-cannot-write-cannot-grasp.html

Few have the honor of seeing their last names turned into verbs in the Icha-slang Lexicon. Jack Kilcrease is one of them.

To kilcrease means to erase a comment, a post, or an entire blog. Another UOJ Enthusiast, Tim Glende, is known for kilcreasing the same blog twice, his other blog once. Blog me once, shame on you; blog me thrice,  what is your problem?

I hated to spoil Jack's immaculate post about UOJ, but he has no conception about Lutheran theology. How could he? Like his bosom buddies Paul McCain and David Scaer, he had an exceptionally parochial education. McCain went to a Roman Catholic high school and loved it, matriculating later at Missouri's blue collar seminary, Ft. Wayne. Either way, he was with Holy Mother Church.

David Scaer never left the confines of the LCMS, earning an in-house seminary degree, what they used to call an STD, except Martin Stephan ruined it for everyone. Scaer likes to posture as a priest one minute, an ELCA friend the next, an honored guest at an ELS gathering later.

Jack was born to the purple, as far as WELS is concerned. His father was a WELS pastor, a graduate of Mequon. Did the father long to join ELCA, which was largely created by the WELS Watertown apostate, Richard Jungkuntz? We can only guess - but we do know that Jack earned two degrees at ELCA schools - Luther College and Luther Seminary. He became a Jesuit in training at Marquette, finishing a PhD. He moonlights at an all-ELCA online seminary (not accredited) while serving as an adjunct at a Dominican girls college.

Kilcrease, McCain, and Scaer are UOJ Stormtroopers. Instead of teaching the Word of God, they utter philosophical nonsense.

Investigating Universal Objective Justification

Comment Link: http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=4190#comment-279655
Author: Joe Krohn

Comment:


In January of 2011, a WELS pastor preached that our sins were forgiven before we were born; before we heard the Word of God; before our Baptisms.  He stated during discussions that before we do anything, God has forgiven us.  We challenged this teaching.  We received many of the same ruinations that are prevalent here in defense of UOJ.  So you see this is a big problem.  It will eventually go one of two ways.  Either it will morph into full fledged universalism, or go back to the way Scripture and the Confessions speak of one Justification (the promise of forgiveness) that comes through faith, by Grace for Christ’s sake; as it has been since the fall of man in the garden.


The key to understanding justification is where the righteousness of Christ resides and how it is distributed.  It is on Christ objectively FOR (not on) the world and becomes OURS (imputation) through faith by a hearing of the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.


BTW…we were excommunicated for our confession and told we were in need of repentance.  When we asked what commandment we broke, we were given no answer and told it was a fellowship issue.  Excommunication is reserved for the unwillingness to repent for breaking the Law of God…the Ten Commandments.

***

GJ - The Unsteady Lutheran Enthusiasts ended up with a good discussion on their hands, because a wide variety defended the historical Christian faith instead of bowing to the UOJ bullies.


Jack Kilcrease--trained by ELCA,  employed by Roman Catholics to teach religion to papists--gave away his profound ignorance of Lutheran theology by his repeated references to "the doctrine of Objective Justification." David Scaer and Paul McCain think he is the bomb.


The Lutheran Reformers avoided such terminology as "the doctrine of..." There is only one doctrine, a unified truth - in harmony with the entire witness of the Sacred Scriptures. Writing about "doctrines" in the plural suggests a modular view of Christianity, where some units can be changed, others dropped, and still others added.


That is exactly what happened in the aftermath of the Reformation. Calvinist influence merged the atonement with justification, first with Samuel Huber, who was rebuked and sent packing. Huber would be a Synod President today in the LCMS, WELS, or ELS.


The second wave of Calvinism came in the form of Spener's union efforts. The merging of atonement and justification came in the form of double justification, first taught by Georg Christian Knapp and later by F. Schleiermacher. Knapp, Schleiermacher, and Tholuck (Hoenecke's mentor)--all three at Halle--were pivotal figures in Protestant theology.

Ottomar Fuerbringer, Father of 
Ludwig Fuerbringer, Father of
Fibby
Missouri Lutherans know how significant the Fuerbringer family was. Ottomar came over with the syphilitic bishop and married the widow of C. F. W. Walther's brother. Ludwig Fuerbringer was born of that union, became the senior pastor at Frankenmuth, after his father, and later professor and president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Ludwig's son Fibby was the president of the seminary who turned the campus over to the liberals, leading to Tietjen and Seminex (the first gay Lutheran seminary, chaired by Jungkuntz, from WELS).


Ottomar Fuerbringer was trained as a pastor but could not get a call in Europe because he was a Pietist. The Lutheran Church in the German states was rationalistic, with little or no tolerance for "Pietists and mystics," the disparaging terms used for believers. "Old Lutheran" is a term used in America for those who rejected the extremes of revivalism - no liturgy, no creeds, transforming people's lives with the Law.


The "Old Lutherans" were not orthodox - they were cell group Pietists who kept the worship forms of the Lutheran Church while adopting the fantasy that the cell groups were the real church.


Pietism is unionism, which draws people away from Lutheran doctrine, so anyone in a cell group church is headed out of the Lutheran fold, even though the individual may remain a Lutheran in name only.


Doctrinal indifference and disparaging the Means of Grace will always lead to Unitarian-Universalism or to Pentecostalism. Many WELS pastors have gone charismatic (ironic, eh?) while others like Jungkuntz and Gerke have gone Unitarian-Universalist.

New Edition of Luther versus the UOJ Pietists

Here is the link, which will open the free PDF.

Table of Contents

Below is a list of the contents. 

Acknowledgements
Dedication
Chapter 1: Historical Introduction
Robert Preus, Justification and Rome
Important Dates
Reformation
Spener
Pietistic Origins
The Untouchables of Pietism
Stepping Stones to Modernism
Victory of Pietism
Chapter 2: The Efficacy of the Word
Doctrine of Creation – Conversion – Efficacy
Isaiah 55:8-11
Abundant Examples
Chapter 3: Luther Taught Justification by Faith Through the Means of Grace
Efficacy of the Word
The Preaching Office
The Sacraments
Holy Baptism and Justification
Forgiveness in Holy Communion
Chapter 4: Exegetical Essay on Justification
UOJ Advocacy
UOJ Opposition
The LCMS Brief Statement
Romans 4:25 and 5:19
Lenski:
Highpoint of Romans 4
Lenski:
Transition to Romans 5:1-2
We have access by faith into this grace
Examples of faith:
Three Statements of God’s Grace
Lenski, Romans 5:6
Romans 5:8-9
Romans 5:10-11
Romans 5:12-17
Romans 5:18-21
Luther on Romans 5:18
Romans 10 – Pauline Means of Grace
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
1 Timothy 3:16 – Easter “Absolution”
One Redemption, Two Verbs
Propitiation
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Justification by Faith Assumes the Efficacy of the Word
1. The Scriptures
2. The Confessions
3. Luther’s Sermons
God’s Only Method – The Means of Grace
Chapter 6: Pietism Is Enthusiasm
Roman Catholic Enthusiasm
The Formula  of Concord Repudiates UOJ
Muhlenberg Tradition
Chapter 7: Samuel Huber, Post-Concord Universalist
Book of Concord Aftermath
Walther and Huberism
Chapter 8: Stephan’s Halle Pietism Became Walther’s Universal Objective Justification
Martin Stephan’s Saga, Pietism and Syphilis
C. F. W. Walther the Pietist
Kidnapping Two Children from His Father’s Home
From Here to Rosebud: Syphilis Exposed
Walther’s Stealth and the Stephan Riot
Chapter 9: Summary of the Doctrinal Issue
Samuel Huber
Pietism
New Pietism
Appendix 1: False Claims of UOJ
Halle University - Professor Knapp
Eduard Preuss, LCMS to Roman Catholic
Cherney, WELS
Siegbert Becker, WELS
Hoenecke Citing Burk
Walther, Easter “World Absolution”
F. Pieper – Easter Absolution
Pieper – Reconciliation as Absolution
Stoeckhardt
Engelder, 1933
Theodore Mueller, 1982
Theodore Brohm, 19th Century
Norwegian Synod, 19th Century
Missouri Synod Brief Statement, 1932
J. P. Meyer and Kokomo
WELS Conference of Presidents, 1954
Excommunicated For Denying Statements
LCMS Theses on UOJ, 1983
David Scaer
Robert Preus
Sig Becker, 1982
Sig Becker, 1984
David Beckman
Bourman
Deutschlander
Buchholz
Reim
Jungkuntz
Wendland
Zarling
Appendix 2: Justification by Faith
Treasure Distributed
No Forgiveness Outside the Church
Lenski
Justification, Apology
Chytraeus, Concordist
Curia Confession
Norwegian UOJ
Formula, Free Will
Luther - Not the Sins of Unbelievers
Requires Faith
LCMS Catechism, 1905
Appendix 3: Efficacy Catechism
Misuse of Creation
Is God always active through the Word?
What New Testament text supports this claim?
Additional Passages
The terms efficacious and effective
Is Satan also effective?
Is the Word alone is effective?
Can we detract or add to the Word?
Do we create obstacles to God’s Word?
Did Jesus believe in the efficacy of the Word?
Did Jesus use miracles to convert people to faith?
Does love make us effective?
Can unfriendly ushers undo a sermon?
Does God limit Himself to the Word?
Effective Sermons
Why is it important to preach?
What if I fail to see results?
Is it the pastor’s job to be popular?
Would a better personality help?
Why reject Reformed doctrine?
Quo propior Luthero, eo melior theologus!
How can the Sacraments be God’s Word?
How do we number the Sacraments?
16. Why is infant Baptism such a great comfort?
Why do we say that God acts through Baptism?
How is the Word effective in Holy Communion?
Christ is bodily present in Holy Communion?
Appendix 4: The Gospel in a Few, Simple Steps
Errors Refuted
Preaching of the Gospel – Stone in a Pond

The new parts of this edition are:

1. Walther, Stephan, Pietism, and Syphilis.

2. Huber the Universalist rejected by the orthodox Lutherans.

North Texas Free Conference 2012. Will Rolf Preus Express Agreement with His Father's Clear Statements?

North Texas Free Conference 2012:

"North Texas Free Conference 2012
"Is Justification Still the Issue?"

Friday - Saturday... January 27-28, 2012
Is Justification Still the Issue? What is the greatest threat to the church today? Is it the disintegration of the family? Is it the helter-skelter of the Church’s liturgy? Two devout Lutheran theologians will present the case that justification is the article “on which the Church stands or falls.”

Speakers
Rev. Rolf D. Preus is pastor of First American Lutheran Church in Mayville, ND, Grace Lutheran Church in Crookston, MN, and First Evanger Lutheran Church in Fertile, MN. He has an STM degree from Concordia Theological Seminary, where he wrote his thesis on the doctrine of justification."

'via Blog this'

Colloquy for the WELS Leadership LCMS and ELS Should Answer Too

Without a doubt, WELS has promoted the false doctrine of Church Growth from the top down, beginning with SP Naumann endorsing it in the first issue of TELL magazine.

SP Mischke did more of the same, with Paul Calvin Kelm serving as his Iago.


Next came SP Gurgle, the conservative dream candidate who would stop promote amalgamation and drive even more CG advances through God's Counselor, Wayne Mueller, SP-in-Waiting.

SP Gurgle was shown the door, before the kitchen silverware disappeared with the rest of the loot. For some reason, the DP who supervised the bankruptcy of MilCraft--estate gift to the district, followed by losing a lawsuit to the defrauded widow--was entrusted with a much larger legacy, the Schwan Indulgences.

Most wealthy adulterers are not preached into heaven until they die. Marvin was assumed into heaven while still alive, with a three-sect chorus of voices praising his leadership. And for good reason. Rather than adopt a congregation or denomination, Marvin adopted the entire Synodical Conference, building cathedrals to honor himself in St. Louis, Mankato, and New Ulm.

The next conservative dream candidate* was Mark Schroeder, who has promoted Church and Change leaders to positions of greater influence while threatening and silencing critics of Fuller Seminary.

To quote DP John Seifert, "Wisconsin Synod practices say more about our doctrine than we care to think." Yes, indeed. And that includes Silent Seifert.

WELS members and pastors have begged Mark Schroeder to do something about members being excommunicated by such rascals as Glende, Patterson, and Gurgle. (The ex-SP keeps turning up, like a bad penny.) Schroeder says he is powerless. Tis funny how so many men covet powerless positions. Buchholz is powerless too. If they want to experience a powerless position, they should try blogging. I could not get a certified letter acknowledged by the SP, let alone answered.

Long ago I proved that the entire structure of WELS was nothing more than a franchise operation to benefit Fuller Seminary, with their Love Shack leaders and Sausage Factory professors promoted chiefly because they attended Fuller, Willow Creek, and Trinity Divinity: Valleskey, Bivens, Kelm, Olson, Huebner, Oelhafen, Adrian, and many more.

Colloquy Questions

Rather than plead for mercy for the excommunicated from WELS, why not put the DPs and Synod President through colloquy, to see if they are Lutheran? Or even Christian? Here are the questions.

1. Does the Holy Spirit work only through the Word, as Hoenecke taught in harmony with the Scriptures, Luther, and the Confessions?

2. Is God's grace given to us only through the Means of Grace, the Word and Sacraments?

3. If God declared the entire world forgiven the moment Christ died, where is this found in the Scriptures?

4. If God declared the entire world forgiven the moment Christ rose from the dead, where is this found in the Scriptures? Please account for the time difference between #3 and #4.

5. Was anyone justified in the Old Testament? If not, then why does Paul declare that Abraham was reckoned righteous because of his faith?

6. Please explain the contradiction between Abraham justified by faith and the entire world declared forgiven the moment He died, or rose? Clarify the time differences between #3, #4, and #6.

7. Are you willing to accuse Paul of promoting intuitu fidei, because he wrote, inspired by the Holy Spirit: KJV Romans 4:24 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.

8. Do you equate the atonement with justification and salvation, in agreement with the convention essay by DP Buchholz? (Buchholz has to be asked if he agrees with his own essay, because he denies that WELS has ever said everyone is saved.)

9. Do you agree with the Seventh Day Adventists about justification, because they have exactly the same statement as WELS and Missouri? If you do agree, why have you not declared fellowship with the Adventists?

10. Do you agree with the Universalists, who say that everyone is forgiven and saved? If not, please explain. Clarify the contradiction between #9 and #10.

11. Are babies born already forgiven, as Ed Preuss wrote before he joined the Church of Rome, while still teaching as a Lutheran? If so, why baptize them?

12. Are Hottentots already forgiven, as Ed Preuss wrote in his famous booklet on justification? If they are, why have foreign missions, except for the beaches in Rio and the Riviera?

13. Why was Gausewitz head of the Synodical Conference and the author of a Small Catechism edition used by most congregations, since his work does not even mention Universal Objective Justification?

14. When WELS replaced Gausewitz with Kuske's catechism, why did you fail to notice the change in doctrine?

15. Are you promoting the porno-mytho-anti-Sacramental NNIV because it butchers Romans to teach universal absolution?

*

GJ - The so-called conservatives should read Norris' The Octopus, where the farmers used their money to buy someone a seat on the railroad commission, only to find out he was a slave to the railroad monopoly.

---

marco has left a new comment on your post " Without a doubt, WELS has promoted the false doc...":

Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Art IV (p.151).

"Is. 53:11: By His knowledge shall He justify many. But what is the knowledge of Christ unless to know the benefits of Christ, the promises which by the Gospel He has scattered broadcast in the world?"

Does this quote leave any doubt where Luther stood on Romans 5:15,19 with the word "many"? and also, by the way, where he stood on John 1:29 since John the Baptist's reference was not to the Day of Atonement, but to Isaiah 53:7,11?

Only by knowing Christ through faith are the many justified. Only by knowing Christ through faith does the Lamb of God take away their sins.

---

AC V has left a new comment on your post "Colloquy for the WELS Leadership LCMS and ELS Shou...":

Oops, did that slip out? In an interview with the San Diego Reader (http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/feb/23/sheep-reformation-lutheran-church; reprinted in the Sep. 2011 FIC-l), WELS pastor Kevin Schultz answers this question:

SDR: What is your main concern as a member of the clergy?

PS: The most important concern I have is getting people interested in God's Word....

Wow, what a burden to bear! It's all up to "me." If people aren't interested in God's Word, it's because I'm not doing it right. All I need is the right CG method, and they'll become interested.

Seems the knee-jerk reaction for WELS clergy now (at least for this WELS pastor), when asked what a pastor's "main concern" is, is to "get people interested in God's Word." Better check your ordination vows again, PS. That's not what you swore to do.

The right answer would have been, "The most important concern I have is being faithful to God's Word and his Sacraments because it is through the preaching of God's Word and the administration of the Sacraments that sinners hear of and receive God's grace in Jesus Christ. And I pray that by God's grace many will believe when they hear that good news. It's best job in the world because the results are up to God, not me."

Joe Krohn Answers in Public

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Survey Says!

This post is dedicated to those brothers and sisters who may be struggling with the doctrine of justification at Holy Word.  I understand that I have been painted as one who is professing that my faith is a work of mine.  Here is my confession.  You decide. After I posted my response to Holy Word's letter of our impending termination of fellowship, a pastor emailed me the following nine questions regarding my confession.  He asked if I would indulge him in answering them and I did so. Here are the questions and my answers in italics with my commentary following:


1. Did Jesus’ death cover the sins of the entire world?  I think the key is Christ’s righteousness and how it is received. Focusing on the cross especially from our perspective – post Calvary- discombobulates things. This way we can talk of all believers of all time in the same way. However there is still this problem with sin. God promised that Christ would deal with it and He certainly did by atoning for them in mans place.




2. Were the sins of the entire world taken from men and laid upon Jesus?  Again, too much focus on the cross. They were atoned for. As John the Baptist says…the Lamb of God who takes (present tense – ongoing) away the sins of the world…Jesus forgives through faith.


3. Does the righteousness of Christ now stand as the universal substitute before God for the wickedness of mankind?  The righteousness of Christ only benefits those who have faith in Christ; this is as it was from the Garden of Eden until now.


4. Does man’s unbelief and wickedness undo the completed sacrifice on the cross?   


No. 5. What is added to Jesus’ work to complete the work of salvation?  Nothing. Jesus said ‘It is Finished’. [GJ - This question is slanted, like several others, and may tickle the ears of those who equate atonement, justification, and salvation, as DP Buchholz did while pretending to critique the Kokomo debacle.]


6. Is faith a cause of salvation?  No. Or does faith merely appropriate salvation? We are saved by grace for Christ’s sake through faith.


7. Is faith man’s contribution to salvation?  No. This is synergism.


8. Is it man’s responsibility to produce repentance?  He can’t…it is the work of the Holy Ghost worked through the Means of Grace. [GJ - The Holy Spirit works through the Law to foster repentance, and the chief sin, the foundational sin, John 16:8, is unbelief. That said, the "Means of Grace" is man's term for the work of the Gospel in the Word.]


9. Is it man’s responsibility to produce faith?  Same as #8. I can't belabor the point enough that Christ's work of the cross (REDEMPTION) is not the forgiveness of all men's sins.  It is the PAYMENT for them and it is objectively true and for (non-imputed) the benefit of all men of all time.  In Luther's explanation of the Second Article of the Apostle's Creed there is no forgiveness; only redemption.


Remember...the Apostle's Creed is a CONFESSION OF FAITH and the "I, we's and me's' are the believers and NOT all men. "The Second Article. Of Redemption. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. What does this mean?


--Answer. I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won [delivered] me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, in order that I may be [wholly] His own, and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true."


The Resurrection and the Forgiveness of Sins are Third Article of the Apostle's Creed and our true Christian confession of faith.  As believers we are totally reliant on God and specifically the Holy Ghost regarding our salvation.  We are 100% passive.


He does the work from atoning for our sins and working faith, forgiveness, justification and righteousness.  It is outside of us...Christ's righteousness is outside of us and it is only through faith worked by the Holy Spirit that we receive this righteousness; otherwise we die in our sins. (John 8:24)
This was most certainly true for the believers of the Old Testament as well as all of those living in the New Testament. Here is Luther's explanation to the Third Article: The Third Article. Of Sanctification.


I believe in the Holy Ghost; one holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen. What does this mean?


--Answer. I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.


***


GJ -Joe Krohn is willing to deal with public false doctrine out in the open.


VP Patterson and Ex-SP Gurgle are being underhanded, secretive, and popish - standard WELS clergy behavior. Patterson and his Facebook friend, Tim Glende, are both hotter than Georgia asphalt for UOJ and Church Shrinkage false doctrine.


Gurgle was the finger-puppet for UOJ/CG when he was SP, but he was the dream candidate of "conservatives" when he descended to that office. Mark Schroeder became the new dream candidate of "conservatives" to trick them again. Some pastors do not learn.


This excommunication is another test of whether Lutherans can base their discussions on the two foundational truths of the Scriptures and Confessions:

1. The efficacy of the Word alone.
2. The work of the Gospel through the Means of Grace alone.

The questions above came from a WELS pastor. The Syn Conference pastors are not used to working from the two foundational truths, because their history rests upon a false view of Walther, his toxic amalgamation of Pietistic Enthusiasm and Lutheran doctrine.


Their precious double-justification scheme is identical to Knapp, Schleiermacher, and the Second Day Adventists.


Knapp was a Halle Pietist, very influential, and still in print today.


Schleiermacher was a Halle liberal, the pivotal figure in modern theology, foundational for Karl Barth, the official (adulterous, Marxist) theologian of Fuller Seminary.


Gurgle and Patterson, with their Mequon counterparts, agree completely with the precise wording of the Seventh Day Adventists on justification:

According to the 1888 Message Study Committee ("1888 MSC"), the 1888 message reveals many "fresh, beautiful truths . . . that are not usually understood today."[1] One such "truth" is the concept that Christ's death at the cross accomplished a legal or objective justification which is universally and unconditionally applied to all men.[2] This doctrine is said to derive from the observations that Christ has borne the sins of "all men" and has died the second death for "every man." It is viewed as the basis for the present life enjoyed by all men. This legal justification, also referred to as a corporate justification, is distinguished by its proponents from justification by faith, or "experiential" justification, and should not be taken to imply universal salvation wherein all men would be saved, some even against their will. The especial merit of such universal legal justification, as seen by the spokesmen for the 1888 MSC, is that it provides foundational proof and an earnest of the loving initiative taken by God to bring about man's salvation. When the full import of God's initiative on man's behalf is recognized, it is believed to be pivotal in galvanizing the sinner's complete devotion to, and saving faith in, Christ.

When there is precise agreement with the Seventh Day Adventists on justification, down to the explanation about how justification by faith "works," people should take notice. The Adventists are not Christian.

UOJ Is Nothing Less Than Mainline Apostasy - The Last Belch of Halle University Doctrine

 2138 has left a new comment on your post "The Eighth Sunday after Trinity. Luther's Sermons ...":

"If you even fall into despair and depression, your conscience accusing you (with the help of Old Scratch), there is but one remedy. Do you believe Christ died to pay for your sins? If so, then your sins are all forgiven, forgotten, and absolved."

vs.

"If forgiveness were dependent on faith in the same sense that God does not forgive until we believe, we would always have to be sure that we are believers before we would be sure that we are forgiven. We may not see how dangerous that is until one of those moments of temptation and doubt comes to us in which we no longer know that we are believers. In such a time we will have no place to go unless we can say, 'God has told me that in Christ he has forgiven the sins of the world. My faith or my unbelief will neither make God's word true or untrue. He does not lie. He justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5). Even if I am the most ungodly, the most wicked man on earth, I know that he has justified and forgiven me. To that promise I will cling, even if my heart tells me that I am without faith, without love, without hope. I know that God is greater than my heart and knows all things (1 John 3:20).' Only the doctrine of universal justification makes it possible for a believing child of God to have such a sure foundation for his faith." (Siegbert Becker, "Universal Justification," Our Great Heritage, p. 60, emphasis mine)

 I can't wrap my mind around Becker's convoluted reasoning.

Why is it necessary for me to trust in Christ's universal forgiveness, when I can just trust in Christ who died to pay for my sins?

If I deny that God has forgiven my unbelieving neighbor, but that one is only forgiven and justified by faith, a Lutheran pastor will tell me that I am not teaching God's Word correctly?

Why are people being excommunicated for telling pastors that unbelievers are going to go to hell, and that no amount of "universal forgiveness" is going to do them any good?

 Why hold out a "universal forgiveness" carrot to the unbeliever? What will he care that he's "forgiven"? He needs to hear the cold, hard facts of the Law to break his stony heart, and then the sweet Gospel message of a Savior crucified and risen for him will, with the Holy Spirit's work through water and Word, wash over and bring forgiveness and life to the ungodly.

With faith, with Christ's righteousness covering him, now God sees perfection. Without faith, without Christ's righteousness, God still sees sin.

If universal justification is true, then God must see Christ's perfection covering everyone.

That's a problem, because whoever does not believe will be condemned. So although God sees perfection in the unbeliever, off to eternal condemnation he goes. So much for being universally justified and forgiven.

***

GJ -UOJ is terribly convenient for those who passionately believe nothing. They can denounce faith in the name of orthodoxy, even though they contradict themselves at every turn.

The Christian Faith is one harmonious truth, but UOJ is a clever amalgamation of deceptions, accusations, and denials.

To paraphrase Paul Calvin Kelm, the oldest living college chaplain, UOJ starts with the (pseudo) Gospel and ends with the Law. First they announce all the snake-charmers, cannibals, and tree-worshipers are forgiven, absolved, and saved, via Universal Objective Justification. Next they lay down their law unmercifully, denouncing and condemning and excommunicating. WELS has just attained a new record - more invented laws than actual members.

Missouri has just reprinted Harrison's At Home in the Deceptions about My Fathers.Walther and his chosen disciple, F. Pieper, laid down a Halle University smokescreen over the doctrine of justification by faith. Both came from German Pietistic unionism, which they forced upon Loehe's original group, excommunicating Loehe and anyone else who disagreed with their sect.

The current situation of the Synodical Conference reminds me of three drunks trying to stagger down the road together, using one another for mutual unsteady support.

I asked one WELS member, "Do you realize your synod writes checks to ELCA?"

"No."

I suggested, "Look in the back of your hymnal for credits to Lutheran Book of Worship, owned by ELCA. Everything from ELCA is licensed and paid for, because of copyrights. Like Missouri, WELS is paying for all those portions of their hymnals and liturgies borrowed from ELCA."

The holier-than-WELS Little Sect on the Prairie has done the same thing. So, while excommunicating me by thought, word, and deed for telling the truth, the Syn Conference embraces ELCA and enriches it with cash, still pretending they look down upon the organization they work with so well.

UOJ Study Would Threaten the Rat Temple

Sure, you do not like this boy sharing milk
with the rats at the Rat Temple in India.
Kokomo is no better. Y'all are just used to it.


rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Building Better Prisons":

If there were a serious study of UOJ within the WELS, the results may be disastrous for some. The Enthusiasm that is so rampant in the WELS may fall like a house of cards. There may be a lot of Fiefdoms that could topple. False teachers given the left foot of fellowship would strike terror in the hearts of those who cannot cope with earning an honest living.

***

GJ - UOJ is also a good way to maintain the priesthood. One must be initiated into the mysteries of UOJ and GA to keep the sheep sheepish.

UOJ allows for any doctrine and any behavior. It is the Pietistic version of Mormonism, ideal for dominating and destroying lives.

The WELS UOJ hero is J. P. Meyer, who taught a version of Decision Theology. NPH printed it in his Ministers of Christ.

Once people are taught unquestioning obedience to the power structure, anything can happen.

The Wisconsin Sect is just a version of the Church of Rome.

---

LPC said...

Pr. GJ,

The Wisconsin Sect is just a version of the Church of Rome.

This is what Richard Neuhaus deduced for the case of Missouri, that is why he went to Rome. He must have deduced, if his Synod was going to act like Rome anyway, why not go for the real McKoy. So he became a Roman priest.


LPC

*** GJ - You are right, Dr. Cruz. I used to correspond with Neuhaus, when he was still in the LCA. James Crumley, as LCA Bishop, curled up in the pope's lap. He sent a color booklet to each LCA pastor, copies of his correspondence with the Antichrist, photos of his face-time with the Holy Father! Yet, at Ad Fontes, Crumley seemed disturbed as he talked privately to Neuhaus. Crumley sat with me and Mrs. Ichabod at lunch, revealing at once that he knew I had joined WELS. Neuhaus joined Rome soon after.

Neuhaus found the Church of Rome inviting while his liberal pals in the LCA kept pounding him for turning conservative. Those labels are so twisted and confused that I will not even begin to unravel them.

Neuhaus went from Viet Nam radical to becoming a critic of the World Council of Churches. He was pro-life and against women's ordination. All those positions meant he did not belong in the LCA or ELCA. Rome honored him at once and the Antichrist had lunch with him.

I may rewrite my essay on Roman Catholic doctrines taught by Lutherans. Neuhaus correctly saw that Missouri was a bad imitation of Rome.

Lutherans should expect a significant increase of their clergy joining Rome or Eastern Orthodoxy. If my intuition is correct, the numbers and names will be shocking - to everyone except me.

Huebner's Double-Talk Comes Through in His Fuller Energized Article

The Shrinkers consistently promote their own losers to positions of power, so they can leverage the damage.

Daniel Baker has left a new comment on your post "WELS First VP Advises the Confused about His Passi...":

"My Word will not return to me empty" - unless you mortals make it less effective by not employing Enthusiastic 'church growth' ideologies.

"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word" - but only if your mortals don't hinder it with lackluster methodologies!

The doublespeak employed by saying "we cannot make God's Word more effective" but then demonstrating how we can make it ineffective would be humorous if this weren't a serious article written by such a high-ranking member of the Synod.

*** - GJ

Three-fold Promise Destroys CG and UOJ

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:

1. It shall not return unto me void,
   
2. But it shall accomplish that which I please,
   
3. And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
   

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. KJV Isaiah 55:8-11

WELS First VP Advises the Confused about His Passion for Fuller Tricks

This balderdash was given to participants at the St. Paul, German Village, Church Growth seminar, led by Webber-Kovaciny-Shep pal Floyd Luther Stolzenburg. Number 17 has become the NNIV dragon, but #8 is the funniest of them all. No wonder WELS is not growing - they are copying Groeschel verbatim! Didn't little Timmy Glende read his hand-outs?

Drink in the Fuller Seminary wisdom without the expense of going there. No like? You have another spirit. The Left Foot of Fellowship will soon be extended in Christian love.

When All Else Fails, WELS Advises - Try Methodism: Stolzenburg Seminar in Columbus, Ohio

Gorge yourself on the wisdom of mainline Methodist evangelism tricks.

This was foreplay for the Groeschel ravishment that followed.

Stolzenburg Evangelism Seminar in Columbus, Ohio

Lito Cruz, PhD, Explains All

LPC has left a new comment on your post "Cyrus Scofield, Convicted Felon, And His Reference...":

Marco,

Yes you are right.

In the KJV the ones being justified freely by his grace points back to the "upon all them that believe". This is the context.

Yes indeed, all these who believe have sinned, yet they are the ones who are justified.

Here is where Calvinism and UOJers get things wrong.

When the Bible speaks of ALL human beings, the Calvinist misses this and limits it to believers.

When the Bible speaks of ALL believers, the UOJer misses this and extends this to the whole world.

In other words, UOJers and Calvinists are united in their mistake on how ALL is to be interpreted, just that they are opposites of each other.

The proper way is to interpret ALL as referring to all human beings when the Bible clearly says so. Then also interpret ALL as referring only to believers when the Bible clearly says so. The context clarifies this.

LPC

***

GJ - Concise and correct. Thank you Dr. Cruz.

Holy Word in Austin (WELS) Is Facebook Friends With Tim Glende. Both Excommunicate Members for Asking Questions.An Abusive Sect Is Silent

"In Christian love, we wish to communicate that you are going to Hell, which is full of guilt-free saints."

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Summer of Love - Another Open Letter to Holy Word Austin

On Sunday May 29th, 2011, we were compelled to write to our brothers and sisters at Holy Word, Austin, Texas in regards to our expedient excommunication via the Yahoo List Mail-serve:

"Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Some of you may know me and others not.  For those who don't, I played the trumpet at Holy Word for the past two years and occasionally before that.

Sadly, we will not be attending any longer since the leadership of your church body has broken fellowship with our family.  Many times these things happen behind the scenes and many are left with `I wonder whatever happened to so and so?' 

We feel very strongly about the issues we brought up to the leadership and we were unequivocally denied on all points.  We feel that the direction of Holy Word is drifting far from its Lutheran roots.  When the Confession is eliminated as it was during a service in March; when there is more and more music that is used that is not appropriate lyrically for worship; when it was voted to drop the name `Lutheran' from the school name; when the Pastor leaves the duties of teaching the Word to layman while teaching a false view of forgiveness, we feel compelled and obligated to bring these to your attention.

Since your leaders are acting in your stead by applying the Ministry of the Keys, it is fitting and proper that you hear us and not only what your leaders tell you so that you can determine an informed opinion.  The people who continue to be members at Holy Word share the responsibility of excommunicating a Christian--and as far as I understand it, improperly applying The Office of the Keys is a very serious sin.

I have been chronicling our experiences here:

http://hereistand2011.blogspot.com/

If the hyperlink does not work, please copy and paste the url into your browser window.

We will miss you all.

In His Grace,
The Krohns"

It was followed later in the day by this:

"Dear Saints,

God loves Joe and Lisa and so so (sic) we.  If you have any questions about this recent email please talk to me off line.  Cyberspace is not the place to air such difficult matters. 
 
We will continue to serve Christ and each other in his love as we seek to find a resolution to those things that divide us.
 
Jesus teaches us, "They will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another."  John 13:35.

If you were in worship today you know how the word of God we heard applies to this present situation. If you happened to miss it, that is okay.  It will be up
on our website soon, - www.holyword.net  Click on sermons audio.

Giving a reason for our hope,

Pastor Don Patterson"

Today marks the two month anniversary of our excommunication by the leadership of Holy Word.  We have been honest and acted in good faith regarding our confession; our willingness to discuss it with the laity of Holy Word while you refuse to do so; and an exhortation to bring this issue to an expedient end.

July marks the end of the second quarter and there has been no communication regarding the status of our membership.  The WELS Constitution states that the voting assembly has the final say on these matters and Holy Word is LONG overdue on their final public vote of disposition.  In the interim and as Confessional Lutherans, we have searched out a congregation that preaches and teaches in truth and purity and who does not pretend to have a 'quia' subscription to the Lutheran Confessions; a congregation who offers us the Means of Grace in Word and Sacrament.  It is not meet, right and salutary for you, Holy Word to continue in this behavior of delaying the matter any longer.

In His Grace,
Joe and Lisa Krohn

Joe Krohn

Additional Attempts To Rescue Crypto-Universalism, AKA Universal Objective Justification

Michael Thom has left a new comment on your post "New Hymn To Universalism:Conceived in the CLC (sic...":

I have not posted at this forum before, but since you have found fault with my hymn, I would like to make a few comments.

First, let me say that I believe that the sinner is justified before God by faith, and not by works of the law. Faith in Christ is the hand by which we sinners receive all of the gifts that God offers in and through our Savior. This is the individual, subjective appropriation of the work of Christ.

Having said that, I would also like to respond to what is implied in your use of red letters in my hymn.

In the first verse, you apparently saw something wrong with the words “and in Your heart of hearts, O Lord, You loved each one the same.” These words were intended to say the same thing as the Lord said in John 3:16, “God so loved the world…” I would hope that it is stating the obvious to say that “the world” is each and every soul. God loved each one. And His love for each one was a genuine, real, 100% love. He did not love some more than others. He wanted every one to be saved. He sent His Son for every sinner.

In the third verse you highlighted “that all the world might be released from sin and death and hell, And have instead His righteousness and in His presence dwell.” Again, I see nothing unscriptural in these words. The phrase is intended to be understood as conveying God’s purpose or intent. Why did God send forth His Son and lay on Him the sins of the world? It was God’s purpose or intent that the end result of His Son’s life and death would be that every sinner would be saved and enjoy eternal life with Him in heaven. This is what Scripture says (John 1:29; 1 Tim 2:4), and I believe this is easily understood in the words of this verse.

Verses four and five refer to God’s universal verdict of innocent in Christ. Jesus completely paid the penalty for every sinner’s guilt through His passive obedience. By His active obedience He satisfied every demand of God’s law. On the third day God the Father raised His Son to life, thereby declaring to all the world that He has accepted the life and death of Christ as full payment and as the required righteousness for every person in all of history. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s judicial declaration to each and every sinner: For Jesus’ sake I declare your punishment paid in full and My righteous requirements fully met.

That judicial declaration gives power to the Gospel invitation: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” Through faith in Jesus, the individual sinner appropriates for himself that universal verdict. It is in Christ, and only in Christ, that God declares this world of sinners forgiven and righteous. (The sinner who stands apart from Christ chooses to go it alone before God’s judgment throne and will get what his unrighteousness has earned.)

This is what has been taught for generations in conservative Lutheranism. In Francis Pieper’s comments on 2 Cor. 5:19, he says: “The katallassein of Rom 5:10 and 2 Cor 5:19 does not refer…to any change that occurs in men, but describes an occurrence in the heart of God. It was God who laid His anger by on account of the ransom brought by Christ. It was God who at that time already had in His heart forgiven the sins of the whole world, for the statement: ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself’ means – and that is not our, but the Apostle’s own interpretation – that God did ‘not impute their trespasses unto them.’ And ‘not imputing trespasses’ is, according to Scripture (Rom 4:6-8) synonymous with ‘forgiving sins,’ ‘justifying’ the sinner. The resurrection of Christ is, as Holy Writ teaches, the actual absolution of the whole world of sinners. Rom 4:25: ‘Who was raised again for our justification.’ At that time we were objectively declared free from sin. (Christian Dogmatics, II, 348).

***

GJ - All the content comes from Calvinism via Pietism. Discerning readers will observe that the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace is never mentioned in these defenses of UOJ. Nor do we ever learn how the Holy Spirit only works through the Word and never apart from the Word. Both Biblical doctrines, which are foundational, never seem to come up when UOJ is being promoted. If the Means of Grace are mentioned, as Buchholz did, the topic is tacked on, duct tape on a bad do-it-yourself project.

The fragments of the Olde Synodical Conference are united on UOJ, even the micro-mini shards, and in perfect agreement with ELCA.

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Additional Attempts To Rescue Crypto-Universalism,...":

All of Michael's unscriptural defenses for the false gospel of UOJ have been discussed at length on Ichabod, Extra Nos, Bailing Water and elsewhere - even down to UOJ's withered hand of faith.

It's important to point out what his defense of UOJ really shows: that the whole world has received, in their unbelief, the adoption of sons. In order for God to declare the world righteous in Christ they have to be given the only righteousness available. That righteousness is Christ's, it is what an heir of Christ receives and having been given Christ's righteousness, UOJ teaches (contrary to Scripture and the Confessions), the whole world is forgiven of all sin, justified and declared righteous by God.

UOJ therefore teaches - having the righteousness of Christ imputed doesn't bring salvation. That forgiveness of all sins - a guiltless verdict - doesn't bring salvation. That being justified before God by Christ's righteousness doesn't save.

The heinous nature of the false gospel of UOJ is clearly shown when you look at what it teaches concerning Christ's righteousness and God's will. Christ's atonement becomes insufficient, inadequate.

UOJ also teaches that even having Christ's righteousness doesn't remove the sin of unbelief. His righteousness didn't cover that sin. UOJ teaches that's the only sin which men go to Hell for. How then does the sin of unbelief, which we were all born with, ever get paid? Why doesn't Christ's righteousness remove the guilt of that sin along with the others? If Christ's righteousness, imputed to the whole unbelieving world, didn't pay for the sin of unbelief - what does? Bueller...Bueller?

I'll tell you that whoever wields the power to remove the sin of unbelief is the real god in regards to the gospel of UOJ. What does UOJ say about this. UOJ teaches that when YOUR faith believes that God already imputed Christ's righteousness to you for the forgiveness of all your sins, even before you were born, the sin of unbelief is removed and you then, and only then, will be saved.

The god of UOJ is Y...O...U!

***

GJ - Or, "You owe Jay." I find it odd that Jay Webber and Paul McCain spend so much time on Jack Cascione's LutherQueasy, mainly because they worry so much about their facade image. LQ is the place for bottom-feeders and ankle-biters.

"My sect is imperfect? Come closer, foul demon from the underworld."

Brett Meyer on UOJ Being Insidious

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Review of J. P. Meyer - Ministers of Christ, Revi...":

UOJ is insidious. It's sole function is to separate the hearer from the one true Gospel.

Those who have rejected Christ's faith but still desire to be called Children of God, have created a new way to be righteous in God's sight that doesn't require the faith which they lack. Having established this new righteousness they go about to destroy Christ's righteousness because it stands as a testament to their deception and departure from Scripture.

Romans 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Almost all (W)ELS UOJ essays bow deep before the holy grail of Universal Justification, Siegbert W. Becker's Justification essay. His is the most clear confession concerning the false, deceptive and contradictory nature of UOJ.

This is his statement on the Kokomo four:
"Every one of the statements can be understood correctly, even though one must swallow a little hard to accede to the fourth. However, because the statements were used to discredit the truth of universal justification and to cause other laymen to doubt this teaching it is especially necessary to point out that the statements do not contain false doctrine."

"One really becomes a guilt-free saint only through faith, if we limit ourselves to the biblical usage of the word. However, since our holiness, as Augustine says, consists in sin’s remission rather than in life’s perfection, we could say that when God forgave the sins of the whole world he regarded all sinners as guilt-free, but if they are guilt-free we might also say that they are considered sinless in the sight of God. But a sinless person is a holy person, a saint."
Page 14

Saints in Hell
"Even the fourth statement can be defended even though it leaves much to be desired. As we have said, the statement is not drawn from a WELS source. If it is true that God has forgiven the sins of the world then it is also true that he forgave the sin of Judas. When Jesus called Judas “friend” in the garden, he was in effect treating him as a forgiven sinner. If Jesus took away the sins of the world he also took away the sins of the people who died in the flood. It is surely no more difficult to believe that God forgave sins that were already being punished than to believe that at the time of the resurrection he forgave sins that had not yet been committed. How that is possible I do not know. It very likely finds its explanation in the divine attribute of eternity.

But while the statement can be defended as expressing a biblical reality, yet it would be best not to speak in such terms. In Scandinavia it is customary on the part of some to ridicule universal justification with the remark, “The damned lie in hell with their forgiven sins.” So this fourth statement is a caricature which has a tendency to make universal justification look ridiculous." Page 15

http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.PDF

There is little about UOJ, and certainly S.W. Becker's essay, which doesn't contradict Scripture, Christ's Holy Word.

And yet I received this warning from an Intrepid Pastor no less, "I did have Sig Becker for a professor, for a number of classes, and I can say, and will say from the roof-tops if called upon to do so, that this man is so far away from UOJ that he's not even in the same universe. OK, I know, I know, he defended Kokomo, but I happen to know that that was a case of synod blood being thicker than confessional water, so to speak...So, I may be dumb, but I'm not totally stupid. So, I think - in my own humble opinion - that if I say some guy is not an UOJ fanatic, I just might know what heck I'm talking about...I only ask you to consider three things - and this advice comes from my own experience - and please believe me, I know of what I speak:

1.) Bashing dead WELS guys, especially greatly beloved ones like Meyer and Becker, will not get you any sympathy or even so much as a hearing among 95% of WELS people. So, if you want to actually make any points or any progress, stick to the living."

So from the only publicly contentious corner of (W)ELS comes the admonition that if we want to be heard by the (W)ELS laity - which these guys shepherd - we can only discuss the statements of the living or the unbeloved dead. Well, so far they haven't promised to stop quoting the dead false teachers. Maybe if they stopped elevating men above Christ they would, by God's grace, hear Christ's voice in the Words of Scripture and faithfully defended and promoted in the Lutheran Confessions.

This pious lie is refuted by the Gausewitz catechism, the Missouri KJV catechism, the old German LCMS catechism, and many statements previous to the 1932 Brief Statement.

UOJ Enthusiasts are also Church Growth Enthusiasts. Ask Valleskey.