Sunday, July 1, 2012

UOJ Is Not All Grace But All Works.
Why WELS, ELS, and Missouri Are Bi-Sectsual


The Universal Objective Justification advocates would like everyone to believe they are all grace. Ponder the
ridiculous blabber in the E. Preuss quotation in the graphic. Jack Cascione had that on his website, where I kelmed it, until it began appearing on this blog. Suddenly, that wonderful UOJ essay by Robert Preus disappeared faster than a case of Jim Beam at a COP meeting.

Preuss declared that everyone is forgiven before birth - certainly a supersaturation of grace. And where is the Word of God in this? Nowhere to be found. Faith means believing that this absurdity is true. Even then, faith is mocked because there is really no content to faith when the Promises arrive before the Word or faith.

Therefore, the UOJ fanatics have nothing to offer but works. They are the greatest. Ask them. No, do not bother. They will fill in all the details. They will name their relatives and wait for a gasp of approval. They will point to their glorious achievements for Holy Mother Synod. They will harshly condemn anyone who disagrees with them as heretics, divisive, lazy, and "hurting the synod."

That is also why the UOJ synods have become bi-sectsual. They have no Gospel and cannot explain the simplest concepts of the Bible to their victims. They take shelter in the Babtist faith. Yes, that is a great irony. They spend a lot of time condemning everyone else for unionism, but they salivate at the thought of Babtists teaching them evangelism.

Parlow, Jeske, Kelm, Patterson.
WELS leaders of Enthusiasm - UOJ and Church Growth.


Newly elected DP Patterson, one of the jelly-tele-tubbies of WELS, organized a group of church workers to attend the Exponential gathering in Orlando, Florida. My informant told me that five went with Team Patterson, but doubtless many others from WELS and Missouri also attended. The ELS does some of it, too, while abhorring WELS participation.

Here is a link to the 2012 Exponential.

Eight WELS workers went to the Andy Stanley Babtist worship festival - Drive. I linked the spontaneous, but organized dance planned for 2009. It was awesome!

Not a Photoshop - Andy Stanley explaining about two men being the new Babtist marriage style.
I think Andy is profoundly damaged by something in his family or his life.


Andy is cooking one up for 2013 too. The LCMS and WELS COPs should meet there - and be honest about it.

Because they have short-circuited the Means of Grace, the SynConference leaders have to substitute something else. Church Growth is always emitting some new fad, so those leaders are a constant source of inspiration for the sterile minds of Walther's heirs.

They are paying the Pied Pipers of Pietism to lead their members into Enthusiasm, hatred of the liturgy, and eventual Unitarian-Universalism. That is where Robert Schuller, Founder of Church Growth, took his congregation. When he was done with them, they accepted non-Christians as featured speakers at the Crystal Cathedral. And how could anyone tell the difference?


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LPC has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Is Not All Grace But All Works. Why WELS, ELS,...":

Hang on isn't Kelming the same as McCaining it?

LPC

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Is Not All Grace But All Works. Why WELS, ELS,...":

Embracing UOJ causes Justification by Faith to fall like a house of cards. The UOJ proponents at first try to defend it with some pretzel logic like "faith is merely the hand that accepts" or "you have already been forgiven at the Cross". The Efficacy of the Word becomes short circuited with this twisted sophistry. Just like that, they jump on the Babtist bandwagon. Besides the conferences that they attend, they want the laity to Fireproof their Marriage or a host of other guilt inducing Law pounding measures.

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Is Not All Grace But All Works. Why WELS, ELS,...":

I believe that one of the ways in which universal objective justification enthusiasts disrespect the Holy Spirit and his initiating and sustaining work of faith in the individual soul, is by their own limited (thinking) and words. They point out that:

"faith is merely the hand that accepts" [their common explanation]

The Holy Spirit is not at all to be regarded lightly. Nor is his work in the whole faith process "mere."

And, shall we not forget what Ephesians 2:8-9 basically says: "Grace through faith........."

In short UOJ enthusiasts end up attempting to make Holy Spirit faith in the individual soul, something which it isn't.

Nathan M. Bickel - Bay City, MI

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

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GJ - Everything they say is contrary to the Christian faith, contrary to the Scriptures, contrary to the Confessions. That is why they seek the out the Babtists - they are Gospel-starved. Some go Pentecostal, like the WELS missionaries (Taiwan) because they are Holy Spirit deprived. If they had been taught properly they would not be going after the Enthusiasts with such...ah, Enthusiasm.

UOJ Is Correct, If the Assumptions Are Correct.
But the Assumptions Are Dead Wrong


The assumptions of Universal Objective Justification skip the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace, which is clearly taught in the Scriptures and confessed in the Book of Concord.

I saw how consistent Luther and Confessors were when I began to look into this matter for Thy Strong Word.

The entire corpus supporting UOJ comes from Bishop Stephan, STD, his enforcer and minion, CFW Walther, and the leaders empowered in the Synodical Conference.

Not all the SynConference leaders taught UOJ, nor was it taught all the time in all places. The SynConference elected Gausewitz as their president, a singular honor and sign of respect. The Gausewitz catechism was the not just the WELS catechism but also the catechism for anyone else in the SynConference. No one condemned him as a heretic. No one ousted him for teaching justification by faith.

UOJ solidified in the ELS and WELS because of their ignorant and contentious leaders. Like Walther, they had to kick out and ban anyone who disagreed with them. Pope John the Malefactor (ELS) and Pope Paul the Plagiarist (LCMS) are truth Waltherians.

Bishop Stephan made his clergy obey him in abject submission. Anyone who made the mistake of dissenting was immediately disciplined and forced to pay homage to the syphilitic and adulterous leader.

Pietism goes well with a lack of education. Stephan never finished his university training. He started at Halle University, the fetid womb of Pietism, and did some more work at another school. Walther only had a college degree in rationalism and training in Pietism from Stephan.

The actual assumptions of the UOJ fanatics are:

  • Walther is the infallible exegete of Lutheran doctrine.
  • Everyone who agrees with UOJ is an authority on Lutheran doctrine.
  • If the Bible does not teach UOJ, we can fix that with the NNIV.
  • UOJ is the Gospel - faith is something bad, except as faith in UOJ, which is good.
  • Everyone is born forgiven. Everyone in the world is a guilt-free saint. Everyone is already saved.


Anyone who raises the historical issues (Pietism) or the Biblical issues (efficacy, Means of Grace) is brushed aside, because UOJ dogma trumps everything.



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LPC has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Is Correct, If the Assumptions Are Correct.But...":

UOJ is wrong because it is founded on rational grounds not on exegetical grounds. I just read a few portions of Deutchslander's essays on Justification and I could not continue because I soon die in interest. I usually get that way when I encounter an inferior handling of the Sacred text.

LPC


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GJ - The same things are said repeatedly, with no regard to exegesis. It is just the opposite of what WELS claims about Wauwatosi theology. They wedge their Enthusiasm into the text, no matter how poor the fit.

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Is Correct, If the Assumptions Are Correct.But...":

I would not doubt that one of the behind the scenes unconscious motivating factors for the acceptance and push for universal objective justification by Lutheran enthusiasts, is, that they cannot accept the plain words of our Lord:

Matthew 7:13 - Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.

Matthew 7:14 - For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it. - KJV

These Lutheran enthusiasts, like the political correctness cosmos, cannot conceive that a gracious and loving God who sent His Son to die for the sins of the whole world would then send a large portion of His creation to hell. [Matthew 25:31-46] They go all agog over UOJ but conveniently ignore and forget that the Lord's first gift to mankind in the Garden, was free moral agency [free will].

Hence, the UOJ teaching, exacts and demands an unscriptural [universal] forgiveness for all where there is none; and hence, the works' righteousness infatuation with "church growth" gimmickry to attempt to widen the Narrow Gate.

Nathan M. Bickel - Bay City, MI

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

Did the Lutheran Reformers Even Imagine That "Lutherans" Would Argue Against Justification by Faith?






All the arguments against Universal Objective Justification are clearly presented in the Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Melanchthon was the primary author of both, and Luther had a great appreciation for his associate's skills.

Martin Chemnitz, the senior editor of the Book of Concord/Formula of Concord, was a student of Melanchthon and Luther. Not one scrap can be found to support UOJ in the Book of Concord. That is why the WELS and the Little Sect on the Prairie only pay lip service to the Confessions.

If we look at three eras of the Reformation, we find this:
A. Early Reformation - Luther and Melanchthon taught justification by faith. 1530.
B. Reformation united - Chemnitz and the Concordists united behind a clear confession of justification by faith, rejecting errors that had crept into the Lutheran camp. 1580.
C. Post-Concord - Leyser and the Wittenberg faculty rejected Samuel Huber's early form of UOJ. Leyser was an editor of the Book of Concord and the biographer of Chemnitz, so he had a direct link to Luther and Melanchthon through Chemnitz.


Samuel Huber, the heretic, advocated saying this to unbelievers, just as Wayne Mueller and many others have. One Mequon professor said it was the basis for world missions:

You have the grace of God, you have the righteousness of Christ, you have salvation.


All three statements are standard fare in the Wisconsin Synod and ELS today. NPH reprinted the famous J. P. Meyer commentary, the source of three Kokomo Statements, and left it as is.

Sig Becker, the favorite theologian of WELS, spent the last days of his life defending UOJ.

The ELS officially hates Sig Becker, but this is their doctrinal statement:

By His perfect life and His innocent sufferings and death Jesus has redeemed the entire world. God thereby reconciled the world to Himself, and by the resurrection of His Son declared it to be righteous in Christ. This declaration of universal righteousness is often termed “objective justification.” One has this justification as a personal possession and is personally declared by God to be righteous in Christ when he or she is brought to faith in Him as Savior. This is often called “subjective justification”. If the objective fact of Christ’s atonement is not personally received by faith, then it has no saving benefit for the individual. We reject as unscriptural any teaching that people can be saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ. See 1 John 2:2, 2 Cor. 5:19, John 1:29, 2 Pet. 2:1, John 3:16-18, 2 Cor. 5:19, Rom. 4:25, 1:17 and 5:1-2.


The resurrection absolution is from Rambach (a Pietist) and Walther (another Pietist).

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Did the Lutheran Reformers Even Imagine That "Luth...":

Ichabod -

I hope to revisit this posting. But, I must rush to church this morning, - hopefully not to hear some more of that ungodly universalist teaching!

Nathan M. Bickel - Bay City - mid-Michigan

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Did the Lutheran Reformers Even Imagine That "Luth...":

The Stream of Universal Objective Justification Teaching Continues It's Creeping Flow:

Ichabod -

To my disappointment and continued frustration, I heard more universalism proclaimed from our local WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod) pulpit. Our (10 years out of the seminary) young pastor was still on vacation, so our local Bethel congregation had a fill-in Sunday preacher. He was [is] the (recent and brief) former Saginaw MLS - Michigan Lutheran Seminary president, Rev. Aaron Frey.

Unless I dozed off during the sermon (and I think not, as the Rev. Frey has a boisterous voice at times; then a quieter one with pauses, at other times) - I again heard the nasty UOJ - universal objective justification creep into his sermon about the Gospel of Mark's account of Jesus calming the sea storm - Mark 4:35-41.

Part and parcel of the former MLS president's emphasis was, "Who starts the storm?" He readily discounted (a) nature; (b) the devil but, credited it to God the Father.

He then went on to ask and answer the question: "If God allows storms [in the life of the Christian] - what is His purpose?

Furthermore Rev. Frey went on to distinguish between "saving faith" and the Christian's "measurement of faith," mentioning that the faith that Jesus was talking about to His disciples (in the boat) was that (everyday type) trust faith - that "measurement of faith."

In the process, Rev. Frey stated [Paraphrase] - "that God goes to any length to remove your obstacles to saving faith."

He went on a little while after that, to assert how God looks upon us - [Paraphrase] - "You are forgiven; you are my son, my daughter - nothing in all creation can change that. No cause to concern; no worry; the Lord will bring you home to heaven." [Paraphrase]

Consequently, [then] am I to suppose that the Apostle Paul was just blowing hot air when he penned the Scripture (under the Holy Spirit's pointed inspirational direction)? - 2 Timothy 4:7 - "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith."

And, if the Apostle Paul was just blowing hot air, it would be a lot less struggle if I and all Christians were to believe what the Rev. Aaron Frey related to the congregation this morning. Then we wouldn't have to struggle and fight the good fight of faith like the [apparent] disillusioned Apostle Paul. We could all then just attend Sunday morning worship; pray the confessional prayer, get absolved and cap it off with Holy Communion. [Oh yes - no mention in the sermon of the Holy Spirit - His work of creating and sustaining personal faith and belief]

Finally, again, I am disappointed in what WELS has been apparently seeding in their present and future parish pastors! In this case (with Rev. Frey), this was the man who was called to preside over a WELS high school and prep school for future parochial school teachers and parish pastors. In another posting to Ichabod I've illustrated (from WELS own educational materials) how the elementary children are being UOJ conditioned, and more recently a Vacation Bible School where personal faith, belief and the working of the Holy Spirit were scratched (eliminated).

Ichabod - Please continue to highlight this major teaching and preaching heresy of "universal objective justification." This departure from Scripture is truly alarming and very defining! As you stated in a recent posting, this false teaching is one of three major common error marks of those who depart from the divine revelation.

Nathan M. Bickel - Bay City, Michigan

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org