“Objective Justification” has been variously presented
• as merely a synonym for unlimited atonement,
• as properly referring to justification as the object of faith,
• and as the ‘proper’ understanding of the teaching.3
This last view states that it is a fact4 that Mankind has been not only atoned for by Christ, but actually
declared free from sin by God prior to faith. In the resurrection, it is said, God actually absolved the
world.5 Indeed, Pieper says6 that if this idea is not maintained Christianity is completely lost and the
Gospel is necessarily turned into a set of rules by which to gain God’s favor.
To be clear, then, in these theses, we will mean by the term “Objective Justification” precisely and solely
what was taught by Pieper in his Dogmatics, which is what is the stated official position of the LCMS in
its Brief Statement, to wit: “Objective Justification” is the dogmatic assertion that a forensic declaration
was made by God in the resurrection (because of a change in His heart effected by the atoning death of
the Christ) that Man is without sin.
Such a teaching, it is stated, requires a ‘second part’ for justification to be enjoyed by any person: that he
personally and individually receive what God has objectively declared of all together. While in practice
we have often witnessed a minimizing of the Means of Grace in bodies that hold to this teaching, that is
certainly not the intent of those who first promoted it, since such reception is done by means of faith that
is created in the one receiving by the Holy Ghost’s use of the Gospel.7
3 I.e., as found in, e.g., Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics and the Missouri Synod’s Brief Statement.
4 Whether believed or not; thus, “objective.”
5 Note, that among LCMS theologians it is not generally stated as “all men,” but as “Mankind” or “the world,” so that the ‘class’ is absolved, but no persons in particular. Among the WELS theologians, this distinction doesn’t seem to be maintained.
Cf. “This We Believe,” IV:1, http://www.wels.net/what-we-believe/statements-beliefs/this-we-believe/justification;
Dr. Siegbert Becker’s 1982 essay, “Objective Justification,” p. 1,14, http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.pdf;
Forrest Bivens’s essay, “Getting The Right Message Out—And Getting It Out The Right Way,” in the section where he abuses Romans 3:23–24, http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BivensMessage.pdf;
John Schaller in his The Wauwatosa Theology,
Volume 1, p. 459, 466–467; and David Kuske in his comments on 2 Corinthians 5:19 in “Making Use of Our Lutheran Heritage—‘Objective Justification’ in Our Mission Outreach Based on an Exegesis of 2 Corinthians 5:18–19,” p. 7,9,11,
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/KuskeOutreach.pdf.
6 Christian Dogmatics, II, 347–351.
7 Thus, one sees C.F.W. Walther, for example, rightly promoting the use of the Gospel in all its forms (i.e., that which is read, preached upon, spoken directly in Holy Absolution, or tied to physical elements in Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the Means [or Channels] of Salvation, as they are properly called) to distribute and confer what God the Son has won by His passive and active obedience, for which purpose Christ instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry.
Here endeth the Theses, so far.
***
GJ - The Synodical Conference has to face the dread reality of their Sacraments being as meaningless as ELCA's, because they do not treat them as the Instruments of Grace but only as symbols of what has already taken place - the universal absolution of the unbelieving world - without faith, without the Word, without the Means of Grace.
One cannot "rightly promote the use of the Gospel" when the Gospel is denied via the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace.
Walther was hopelessly confused about Christian doctrine, so he made sure a clone followed him - F. Pieper. Walther jiggered the election of Pieper so it would happen at the convention he controlled, in St. Louis, instead of the district conventions. Ludwig Fuerbringer noted this anomaly, which is appropriate for an Antinomian. See Fuerbringer's books, which reveal and conceal much about Missouri's early history.
Here is the UOJ contradiction. The entire world is forgiven, even before birth, either on Good Friday or at the resurrection of Christ. Faith has nothing to do with this. However, no one is really forgiven until he believes that the entire world has already been absolved of sin and saved. Thus everyone in Hell is a guilt-free saint.
No one can connect coherent Christian doctrine to those absurdities, but the Synodical Conference has tried without success. They cannot face the truth of their dogma being almost exactly like that of the liberals once Halle University became rationalistic (one generation). That is the great divide, since people either think in terms of the Reformation and Concordist era or they fashion everything based on Halle rationalistic philosophy. Hence, most UOJ apologists fall into saying, "If this is so, then that must be true." If Christ paid for the sins of the world, then the entire world must be righteous, forgiven, and saved - they imagine.
Halle spawned rationalistic anti-Biblical tirades and such faith-without-belief theologians as Schleiermacher. But that does not matter, since few LCMS-WELS pastors know anything about the 19th century liberals and their heirs in the 20th century. Tillich, Barth, Bultmann, and the rest - Missouri ate that up in the 1950s and loved the Social Gospel Movement too.
The Social Gospel is dependent upon a post-faith use of the Scriptures to promote political activism. Lutherans would know that if they read the Rauschenbusch lectures, The Social Gospel, given at Yale in 1917. The activism of the Social Gospel hit the ULCA and Augustana during the Great Depression and made a big impact on the LCMS later.
WELS-LCMS pastors like to pretend that ELCA has a horrid belief system that lets ELCA do anything they want, but the doctrinal basis is almost the same as the SynCons. ELCA is honest about its debt to rationalistic philosophy and the Social Gospel Movement. If WELS-LCMS disagreed so much with ELCA, they would not work with ELCA on evangelism, worship, leadership, and the Malaria Project with Thrivent and the United Nations.
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| Knapp's double-justification became the formula of the Synodical Conference, but the Protestant liberals soon dropped the second justification. |
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| JP Meyer published the first three sentences in the Kokomo Statements, which WELS blames on the critics on UOJ, proving once again that all UOJists are liars. |
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| Guilt-free saints can murder and commit adultery, as long as they agree with this precious doctrine, right? |
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| UOJ cops a plea for its own weird Decision Theology, left untouched in the new edition of this monstrous book. |
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| There is great comfort for Sodom, yea even in Hell. Ask St. Liberace. |
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| Birdbrain. |
Links to the individual ELDONA Justification by Faith Posts.
