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| They do not agree about clergy collars, but all three oppose justification by faith. Carl Braaten of ELCA agrees with them. |
I was reading What Luther Says, II, p. 702ff - about justification. I will copy it here.
The article of justification is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines; it preserves and governs all church doctrine and raises up our conscience before God. Without this article the world is utter death and darkness. No error is so mean, so clumsy, and so outworn as not to be supremely pleasing to human reason and to seduce us if we are without the knowledge and the contemplation of this article.
What Luther Says, ed. Plass, 3 vols, II, p. 703. W 39, 1, 205.
The article on which the Church stands or falls:
We don’t have record of Luther using the exact phrase, but very close: quia isto articulo stante stat Ecclesia, ruente ruit Ecclesia—“Because if this article [of justification] stands, the church stands; if this article collapses, the church collapses.” (WA 40/3.352.3) [Source: Alister McGrath] - The Gospel Coalition
Does Luther always mean justification by faith, never without faith?
John teaches mainly the sublime and chief article of our Christian faith: believing in Christ. Because of this article we are called Christians. Besides this, we do not find many sermons on the Ten Commandments in this Gospel. Rather it is his greatest task to establish well the sublime article of the righteousness of faith and to impress it deeply on the people. For there is no danger when this article remains pure and unadulterated and stands firmly. But when it is overthrown, we are lost and are no better than Jews, heathen, Tartars, and Turks, aye, we are as bad as the papists. For this reason, because he so diligently teaches this chief article, the evangelist John deserves to be highly praised.
What Luther Says, ed. Plass, 3 vols, II, p. 702. W 33, 82. E 57, 298. SL 7, 2252.
Lutherans manage to write volumes about worship while ignoring justification by faith. They get fussy about Holy Communion and the sacraments without articulating the purpose - justification by faith. They publish many volumes about preaching but avoid justification by faith.
Polluted WELS began a discussion about justification by faithversus UOJ, but abandoned the thread.
We do not require Luther to see that the purpose of the Bible is to teach justification by faith in Christ. But it is good that we have as our putative teacher one who understood the entire Bible as a whole. If Luther actually taught the Lutherans today, the results would be different. But they have McGavran, Wagner, Driscoll, Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel, and the rest as their beloved faculty.
They could rely on the Holy Spirit teaching through the Word, but they have their spreadsheets and metrics. Let them read them.
