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| Hale's reliance on Calvin and Halle Pietism is honored in this Photofunia. "A dolt is just a dolt, a slogan just a slogan. The fundamentalist things apply, as time goes by." |
CN editor Phil Hale - From His Bizarre, Self-Published Aspects of Forgiveness, which means he is self-publishing his self-publishing.
It is true that we are justified (individually) by faith, but this slogan is just that—a slogan, and not a full representation of the teaching of forgiveness in God’s Word. In fact, this minimalistic stereotype leaves out the most important factor of justification: Christ and His work. However, for the modern deniers of objective justification—who claim that there is no aspect of, or basis for, justification before faith—this is said to be the only proper way to speak of justification: There is no ‘‘faithless, universal justification,’’ because there can only be ‘‘one justification taught in Scripture—that of ‘justification by grace through faith’.’’1 It is a historically Lutheran way of speaking, though it has become an identifying phrase for Protestants in general. The issue is not the words themselves, but what they are used to say and avoid saying.
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| Stay tuned for Walther, The American Calvin: A Synod Built on Felonies. |
‘‘In normal Biblical and ecclesiastical usage the terms ‘justify’ and ‘justification’ refer to the (‘subjective’) justification of the individual sinner through faith.’’2 However, Satan does not rest, and false doctrine is not stagnant. We must be careful using 400-yearold phrases without fully understanding what they were used to express and reject. We cannot rule out the possibility of a new error that hides behind traditional Lutheran slogans.
While the modern denial of objective justification says that objective justification is a new teaching, the reverse is actually true: the term is new, to be sure, but Christians are free to use any words to express the truth of God. There is no legalistic, ceremonial rule forbidding new terms or expanded meanings. The issue is whether the teaching, not the language, conforms to Scripture. It is the denial of objective justification that is new, though due to historical circumstances, it was not a teaching at the forefront until recently.
The concept expressed by objective justification is assumed and implicit in the understanding of pre-modern Lutherans because Scripture teaches an objective aspect to justification. It is the denial of the universal application and extent of Christ’s redemptive work that is actually new.3
1 Vernon H. Harley, ‘‘Synergism—Its Logical Association with General or Universal Justification,’’ 1984.
2 CTCR, ‘‘Theses on Justification.’’
3 Even classical Calvinists hold to an objective reconciliation, according to 2 Cor. 5:19, but only for the elect.
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| Hale's pacifier - OJ/SJ - comes from the Calvinist translation of Halle Professor G. C. Knapp's Christian Theology. The pacifier is old and slimy, obviously decaying, but so comforting to Enthusiasts who venerate Walther and Calvin. |
