This is a post on the run. I apologise for being brief, I am in between editing my conference papers and marking of student work.
What I notice with UOJers is that they love to repeat their well worn out mantras. However the issue is that they offer no Scriptural proof for their repeating of parroted slogans. A mantra mostly works not for the one who is hearing it but in actuality it works for the one pronouncing it, it is a type of psycho cybernetic self talk to make one's self believe in what the mantra says. Here are a few mantras I have heard them self talk:
1. If you do not believe in objective justification then you must be a Limited Atonement believer.
Me: I grin. I was a Calvinist, and these Lutherans claiming JBFA people believe in LA do not know what they are talking about. In order to be an LA believer, two things must happen. First, one must equate the atonement with justification. That is to say, when Jesus died on the cross or resurrected, people have been already forgiven automatically too. Who is doing this equating? Not JBFAers, it is the UOJ. Second, to be an LA believer, must deny the mention of the word "world" in 1 John 2:1-2 to mean the whole world without exception, rather it is asserted to be the world of Gentile believers. This is done to similar passages. JBFAers do not do such thing.
2. In order to believe in something, that something must already exists.
Me: Test this for a moment. This is clearly false and we can even give evidence of this from Scripture. It is Romans 43For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. We could even follow this with Romans 4: 9b or we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. Their mantra is fallacious in many counts but do not talk to them about fallacy, they have no clue as to what such a thing is. For example, Abraham believed that the Messiah was to come and would die for his sins. From Abraham's perspective, it has not happened yet. From Abraham's time frame, the event was still in the future. This is the reason why faith is miraculous though miraculously created by God through His chosen means - Word and Sacraments. This is the reason why faith is precious to God and in fact, Jesus is the author of it. Even in human terms, this idea is not even true. We believe in people's promises all the time. I render work for a company on the promise that after the job is done, I would get paid. I meet people for an appointment on the promise they will be at a set time and place. These are all future promises.
There is one vital aspect in this debate that must be brought to light. The two camps, JBFAer and UOJers differ in the object of faith. Consistent UOJers are unanimous in this, that for them the object of faith is not the Atonement that happened in the past as payment for sins, for them the object of faith is the Justification that has already, so they say, occurred 2000 years ago. In this regard the commentator R. C. H. Lenski is correct in his criticism of them. In his commentary on Romans 1:17, Lenski was well correct that in the UOJ scheme of things, there really is no declaration of righteousness that happens when a person believes because the declaration already happened in the past. Whereas in JBFA, the object of faith is the Atonement in accordance to Romans 3:21-26, specially, v.25. UOJers are quick to claim that we are twisting their words, but deny as much as they want, the effect of their teaching is that it simply makes justification a mythical. Lenski rebuts well the idea that if you believe in such a way, you are being synergistic. So to keep the laymen from the truth, Walther and Co. and the rest of UOJers ran a propaganda of bad mouthing Lenski. Yet, even non-Lutherans held Lenski in high esteem as a NT scholar even today.
11 comments:
Thanks for clarifying the commonality between the false gospel of Objective Justification and the Reformed doctrine of Limited Atonement. More needs to be written on this as people are waking up to the antichristian teachings of UOJ and it's declaration that the whole unbelieving world has been forgiven and declared righteous by God.
Thanks Lito.
Brett,
UOJers are simply engaging in propaganda when they repeat their mantra. None of these blokes know what Calvinism is, that is why they do not even realize it if they are one themselves.
I noticed this lately in our encounter with one of late. The person is not interested in dialogue, he just wants to self perpetuate his own theories. The truth is just too much to bear.
When a person has made up his mind of what he thinks the truth is, he can not be swayed by reason and above all not with Biblical facts either.
LPC
You come at the issues from a different perspective, which is good. Many people are thinking things through. You help those who do not really know what Calvinism is. The professors (who do not know Calvinism either) are displaying the shadows of puppets against the wall, and saying, "Stay away from the cave entrance. You will die from the sunlight." (Plato's Analogy of the Cave - for those who graduated from Mequon)
They are like their father - Huber, he also called the orthodox Lutherans who opposed his universalistic bad talk, Calvinists. Walther and the rest of the UOJers and even their prodigal UOJers are the same.
LPC
Walther, graduated from college. That was good, but that was the end of his education. His spiritual formation came from a repressive and legalistic Pietist, then from a narcissistic and adulterous Pietist. That hardly qualifies Walther as the judge of all things Lutheran. When the published facts are discussed, the UOJ flock cries "Slander!"
Ahh yes, Walther is their cult hero. Try saying something like that to Ellen G. White, her followers will also reply ............Noooooooo!
For UOJ fanatics, Walther can never be wrong. He has been elevated to a Saint ala Roma.
There is a shrine for Walther but none like that for the other Lutheran fathers, just see the comparison.
LPC
I think that I heard an interesting twist of UOJ (universal objective justification) in church on Holy Trinity Sunday. The pastor was preaching from Romans 8:14-17 and doing a wonderful job directing his sermon to the parochial school, high school and other graduates.
As is his mode, he initially launches his sermon with an illustration and carries that illustration theme to the bitter end. This time he launched his sermon with a Shakespearean portion - Romeo's soliloquy about how a name does not define a person. Then spoke how it actually does. He then continued by saying that as a Christian, God's Name is stamped upon a person beginning with Christian Baptism. Hence, what God did and does, indeed defines us. [You get the picture]
This particular Sunday I was listening with rapt attention because for the first time (that I can remember) unless I've been otherwise dozing, [and, I think not] he spoke at some concerted length about the Holy Spirit and His work in the individual. I was very pleased as he seemed to be headed in the right doctrinal direction. But, then, (sadly) to my disappointment, he ended his sermon by encouraging the graduates to remember who they are.
Now, that would have been okay to say, but not to immediately stop at that point. I don't remember the Scripture saying:
"....be thou in remembrance of who you are, unto death and I will give you a crown of life."
No, - not at all. The Scripture does (though) read: "......be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." - Revelation 2:10b
Also, I don't recall Scripture's words penned (under inspiration) by the Apostle Paul, saying:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have remembered who I am."
No, - Instead the Scripture reads:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith......" - 2 Timothy 4:7
The pastor [he is young and about 10 years out of the seminary] got all the way to the end of his sermon and stopped short. He blew it! He didn't go "full circle!" He left the graduates, essentially with cheap grace. No mention of the necessity of them preserving in the faith until the end. No mention of personal belief and faith. No mention of justification by faith alone.
Needless to say, I was highly disappointed. And, this is (just) one church and one pastor. Lord only knows how many more, Sunday after Sunday! Martin Luther's body must have no rest, constantly turning over in his grave.........
Nathan M. Bickel - pastor emeritus
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
Hi Pr. Nathan,
I get the same experience occasionally when I am in church. Sometimes it is a let down.
You see, to the UOJ crowd, faith is not a big deal at all so consequently they do not see it as a fight, a struggle. In fact you hear them malign faith, they do not see it as an issue. Yet Jesus, the Apostles and even Luther saw this problem many times.
If faith is not an issue, then there is no need to mention how one has to fight the fight of faith.
This is one of the skewed view of Scripture that plagues UOJ adherents.
UOJers love you not to look at your self but they eventually direct you to the self because when everyone is already declared righteous without faith and prior to faith, what is more is there? So they wind up trying to find something that will make Christian life meaningful.
It is because they have rejected the very teaching of Scripture about faith.
LPC
LPC -
Excellent observations about UOJ adherents! Their false belief in universal objective justification helps to make them, their own worst enemy.
I think you hit it on the nail when you said that those that advocate UOJ have completely missed the object of faith, which is Christ and his atoning work or propitiation. The object of faith is not the absolution of the entire world, or the forgiveness of sin, but Christ and Him alone (and his perfect satisfaction for sin or atonement which God has accepted). When we trust in Christ's perfect atonement, then and only then we can know with certainty that God has forgiven our sin, that we have been absolved in Christ. But this follows faith, and the absolution or forgiveness of sin is never the object of faith. Christ and his atoning work are the sole objects of faith, his perfect satisfaction for sin which God has accepted.
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