Forrest Bivens, Sausage Factory, Mequon:
The Primary Doctrine in Its Primary Setting: Objective Justification and Lutheran Worship
1. Justification and the Power to Worship
“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 consciences before God. Without this article the world is utter darkness and death.”[1]Luther’s appraisal of the doctrine of justification is also ours. We hold it to be the primary doctrine of Scripture, that is, the central and most important teaching revealed by God for us sinners.[2]
The truth of justification, above all others, distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. If this teaching were obscured or lost, attempts to show significant differences between the Christian religion and others would ultimately prove to be futile. Also, as revealed and emphasized in the Bible, all other doctrines either prepare for or flow from this chief article of faith. Without this truth, all others would mean little. This doctrine is the source or basis of the benefits and blessings which mankind receives from God.
What precisely is this “master and prince, lord, ruler and judge” over other doctrines? Justification is a declaratory act of God, in which he pronounces sinners righteous. As revealed in the Bible, this declaration of God is made totally by grace and on account of Jesus Christ and his substitutionary life and death on behalf of mankind. To phrase it somewhat differently, God has justified acquitted or declared righteous the whole world of sinners. He has forgiven them. They have been reconciled to God; their status in his eyes has been changed from that of sinner to forgiven sinner for the sake of Jesus Christ. Since all this applies to all people, the term universal or general justification is used. In our circles an alternate term, objective justification, is also used. If justification is universal, it must also be objective - sinners are forgiven whether they believe it or not. This is precisely what Scripture teaches in Romans 3:23-24, when it says, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. “ All have sinned and all are justified freely by God’s grace. Romans 4:5 also teaches the grand truth that our God is the “God who justifies the wicked,” all of them. “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them “ (2 Co 5:19). Literally, God was not counting “their” sins against them, and the only antecedent of “their” in the sentence is “the world,” which includes all people.[3]
[2]Lutheran theologians sometimes have difficulty deciding which is the central teaching of Christianity. Usually it is said to be justification, but sometimes Christ's vicarious atonement or his resurrection as the cornerstone of the faith is so labeled. These doctrines are so intimately connected that none can be taught correctly without the others. Professor Siegbert Becker briefly discusses this (1986, p. 13.)
[3]"Subjective justification—is the very same forgiveness as it is received or applied to the individual sinner through the gift of faith. Objective justification is clearly the basis for subjective justification. The sad fact that many sinners forfeit the blessings of forgiveness and reconciliation with God in unbelief does not, however, change the fact or reality of universal justification.
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| Always look on the dark side of life. |
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GJ - First of all, the chief article of Christianity has always been justification by faith. Here Bivens does what all of his colleagues do. He copies and pastes Luther to teach against Luther.
Bivens--whose only qualifications to teach are the courses he took at Fuller Seminary--is either an idiot or a liar. Given his advanced age, he is well acquainted with the original Gausewitz catechism, where UOJ was not taught. In fact, the LCMS has never taught UOJ consistently. Back in 1905, their German catechism taught justification by faith precisely. Their confused publication business, CPH, still sells justification by faith catechisms (the KJV version).
Biven is much closer to atheism, Universalism, and Unitarianism than he is to Halle University Pietism. When I go back to the origins of UOJ, I see the beginnings of the WELS/LCMS fantasy, but never expressed so forcefully and stupidly.
Halle University is the place where we find the Easter absolution content, from Rambach on, where the entire world is absolved from Jesus rising from the dead. But Halle is also the watershed for rationalism. They quickly became rationalistic so that faith did not matter at all. Schleiermacher, always a doubter, was one who turned UOJ into Universalism. Tholuck, Hoenecke's mentor at Halle, confessed himself a Universalist.
Bivens essay is especially obnoxious in its false doctrine because it claims Luther taught UOJ as "primary" and includes Romans 4 as proof of that being Biblical.
The UOJ satirists simply move from talking point to talking point, because no one in WELS dares to question someone with a title.
I will let the readers decide if Bivens leans toward total ignorance of Biblical doctrine or pure dedication to deception.
To update myself on the Holy of Holies, the WELS Essay Files, I looked for some authors. Curt Peterson, an avowed atheist, still has four essays in the files. Why? He was a Valleskey Church Growth buddy. Like Valleskey's chosen successor at Apostles, he followed Biblical infidelity with marital infidelity.
Richard Jungkuntz is another fave at the Holy of Holies. He distinguished himself by being a pioneer of ELCA and the chairman of the board of the first gay Lutheran seminary in America. Seminex deliberately--intentionally is the buzz-word--partnered with Metropolitan Community Church to provide their gay ministers with an MDiv degree. Deppe, from Concordia Seminary St. Louis, taught at Seminex and went on to teach at ELCA's Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago when the portable seminary moved on, took over LSTC, and radicalized it.
The unifying dogma in WELS is UOJ. Tim Glende screamed about it through his brave but anonymous blog.
UOJ and Church Growth/Emergent Church go together.
The Intrepids did not have the guts to combat either one consistently and persistently because they never got their doctrine completely right. They dithered, wavered, and silenced themselves. When one of their own studied the topic and proved himself a real scholar in translation and exegesis, they waved bye-bye and retreated to the warrens and excuses.
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| Once this was - "Where WELS is heading." Now Mark Schroeder has made it happen. |