Objective Justification claims that God has already absolved the world of all sins. Proponents do not agree about when this happened and offer no definite Scriptural citation for that declaration.The dogma merges the Atonement with Justification by Faith, rendering both Biblical terms sterile and meaningless.
Below are some key characteristics of OJ fanatics, since the fruit of the Spirit cannot grow where people have removed themselves from the True Vine to serve another master.
Dishonesty
They promote deception because they burn to replace the Gospel with their self-serving philosophy. They cannot admit their hatred of the Scriptural truth, so they work on ways to start with the Chief Article and turn that into OJ. Lacking faith, there is no contrition, no forgiveness, no sanctification based upon trusting the Savior.
Anger
The OJists are angry abusers of humanity. Claiming to teach the ultimate in grace, they should be overflowing with love and forgiveness. Instead, they make their points by repeating their favorite slogans:- You are not a Christian. You are a Faithian. Your faith is not in Christ but in yourself.
- Oh, you think you need to add something to make it real? God is not sufficient. You need to complete it with faith?
- You are making faith a work. You are relying on merit, which robs the Gospel of grace.
- You deny Objective Justification! - a stand-alone truth for them, automatic condemnation.
Not Very Bright
Basic Christian doctrine can be taught in any language, so the people who advocate OJ are lacking in spiritual discernment and reading comprehension.
- Every Atonement passage is Universal Forgiveness without Faith - for them.
- The only good Justification is Justification without Faith.
- They read Romans 4, a clear essay on the meaning of Genesis 15:6, and declare - "The world was absolved of all sin when Jesus was raised from the dead - raised for our justification!"
- They ignore the key passages of the Bible, Luther, the Galatians Commentary of Luther, Galatians itself, the Book of Concord, Melanchthon's Apology of the Augsburg Confession, and conclude, "Luther taught OJ!"
- They have discussion groups, websites, a tabloid, and the ELCA-WELS-LCMS-ELS-CLC seminaries devoted to one theme - faith is destructive of grace, so faith must be attacked in every possible ways - except for faith in OJ.
Moses Is Their Savior, Jesus Is the Lawgiver
Every time they move their forked tongues, they urge their Law upon the Christian Church - for everyone's good, for growth, for unimagined blessings.
- The church must change! Everything must change!
- Increasing the threat - Change or Die!
- Get rid of the liturgy!
- Tear out the pipe organ and put in a praise band!
- Replace Christian hymns with me-centered songs.
- Look at your numbers and see why you need our wisdom. (Six has gone silent, for some reason. In fact, do not bring that up.)
- To reach people, hold open forums where people will finally agree that "church" and the denominational label are bad, anti-growth, and stifling.
- The robes and sermons are bad news, reminding people of when they woke up crying from nightmares. Wear street clothes. Better - wear garage clean-up day clothes.
- Shun and shame the evil-doer who criticizes our Gospel. He is lazy, bitter, and against progress. He will kill our beloved Holy Mother Church, so he must be silenced at once.
