Reformation Sermon
By Dr. C.F.W. Walther
Reprinted from Christian News, October 24, 1983
A Reformation Sermon, October 21, 1876. Translated by Rev. Arnold T. Jonas, Pilgrim Lutheran Church (Deaf), Los Angeles, Calif. (Retired)
“Lord Jesus, hot was the battle which once our fathers had to wage, but glorious was the victory which You granted unto them. Therefore, we thank and praise you today with joyful mouth and tongue. For that for which our fathers strove, Your true, and precious, and saving Word that is still ours-their children-today: a precious heritage.
“Still the holy war is never fully brought to an end. What we have today, the enemy attempts again and again to wrest from us again. Therefore, You, again and again, call forth to us: “Contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints.” “Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Oh, so help us, then, that the remembrance of our fathers, who battled so steadfastly and faithfully, and are since in death, will influence us today, so that also in our day we battle as did they, so that we also may triumph as they, and one be crowned with Thee, to celebrate with them also—from eternity to eternity. Amen.”
TEXT: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Jude, v. 3
Christ vs. Satan
The History of the Reformation, which remembrance we celebrate today, is the history of the continuous war for about 30 years, from the year 1517 on, as Luther openly nailed his ninety-five theses against the papal tyranny, until the year 1546, when Luther died. This was not much a physical as it was a spiritual battle.
On the one side stood Luther, a weaponless monk, no weapons in his hand other than the Bible, and seconded only by a few, and mostly sagging, friends; on the other side stood the well-armed Pope, the physical and spiritual sword, as he called them, that is, the political and churchly powers, in his hand, and seconded by an uncountable band of church prelates, cardinals, bishops, archbishops, priests, monks, and nuns, as well as by the greatest earthly power in all Christendom of that age, the Emperor.
On the one side stood Error; on the other side, the Truth. On the one side, man’s word; on the other, God’s Word; and what was the chief fact, on the one side stood the invisible Jesus Christ, the King of Truth, and Prince of Salvation with all His holy angels; on the other side, Satan, the prince of darkness and damnation, with all of his hellish hosts.
I Will Not Recant
Today, just 359 years ago, on October 31, 1517, it was that Luther made manifest the battle to the pope with his ninety-five theses, that he would oppose him, girded with the sword of the Spirit, as David once with his slingshot opposed Goliath; and stepped out of his monk’s cloister, in the Name of the Lord, the Living God, upon the plain and gave the signal to contact the enemy to all who wished to stand on the side of the Lord, and His true church, in the most holy war that ever had been upon the face of the earth.
So then followed one skirmish after another, orally as well as penned. In the year 1518, Luther withstood at first a secret duel in Augsburg with the cardinal Cajetan, which dealt only with the little world “revoco”, that means, “I recant”, but all the persuasive oratory of the sly Italian was fruitless. Luther took back nothing and so left the battleground the victor.
In the year 1519 followed an open battle between Luther and the papal sophist, Dr Eck, at the Leipzig Disputation in which the authority of the pope and councils was dealt with; but at the final conclusion of the same, all who were of the truth – even papists – conceded the battle prize to Luther. Two years after, in the year 1521, Luther was at last cited to appear in Worms personally before the Emperor and the empire to be questioned, and that then sentence be spoken.
All the friends of Luther trembled, only he did not; he moreover made clear: “And if there are as many devils in Worms as there are house gables, still I will enter therein; and if my enemies should build a fire from Wittenberg to Worms, that reached up to the heavens, so will I tread not the mouth of the behemoth, between his teeth, to acknowledge Jesus Christ – and let him do as he pleases.”
So began then a hot encounter—but see! As Daniel emerged from the lion’s den, and as the three men came out of the furnace unsinged, so Luther went out of Worms again unbeaten, for his final, closing remark was (and still remains): “I will not recant; here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” A second hot Reformation blow was struck by the giving over of our Confession to the council of emperors at Augsburg in the year 1530.
God’s Word or Reason
The history of the Reformation is, my hearers, not only the history of a battle from without, but also a spiritual leaders battle; namely, that afterwards the Swiss preacher Zwingli, who at the beginning was one with Luther, and with him battled for God’s Word against the papal, man’s, doctrine, Zwingli fell away again, and proclaimed that it was against reason to believe that Christ’s body and blood were in the Sacrament. With horror, Luther saw through this, that Zwingli wanted to set human reason in the pope’s place.
So it came as an inevitable result of many unsuccessful war letters between Luther and Zwingli that in the year 1520 the Colloquy of Marburg was held, which ended in the two opposing camps. Whether the true and almighty words of the Son of God: “This is My body; this is My blood,” should stand; whether it should be God’s Word, or reason – or whether reason must alter God’s Word. That was the second causus belli, the second great battle question, which should be clearly defined at Marburg. And, may God be praised, Luther did not falter here, either. As in Worms, when he freed God’s Word from the authority of the pope, so he, at Marburg, freed God’s Word from the authority of human reason.
And so Luther carried the battle forward, until he at last was called into the land of eternal peace, there to be crowned, and, with all true warriors, to celebrate the Festival of Triumph of Eternal Life.
What, now, my brethren? Has the battle of the Reformation at last brought peace to the church? Oh, no! Triumph comes to the church only above; here, the battle must be carried on till the echo of the last trumpet. God’s Word gives witness to this on all its pages, and also Jude, with many others, writes the same in our text.
“FIGHT THE BATTLE OF FATIH”
I. THE PURE DOCTRINE OF OUR CHURCH IS NOT OUR POSSESSION, BUT IS AN UNEARNED GOOD, TO USE FOR HONEST MANAGEMENT.
II. WHILE THE DESPISING OF THE LEAST OF THESE IS SOMETHING MORE HORRIFYING THAN ALL FIGHTING, AND THE LACK OF PEACE.
III. IT IS A BATTLE COMMANDED BY GOD, AND, THEREFORE, IS TRULY BLESSED, IN TIME AND IN ETERNITY.
I.
The first reason why man thinks “It is about time for the battle for the true doctrine in our church to come finally to an end,” is because this eternal bickering and quarreling, as one calls it, is against Love. Man quotes Jesus, Who says in plain words: “Thereby shall ye be known that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.” So also John writes: “He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” Yes, Paul says, convincingly” “Though I talk with the tongues of men and angels, but have no charity, so am I soundless brass, and a tinkling cymbal. Now abides these three: faith, hope, and charity, and the greatest of these is charity.” When the Galatians were bickering and quarreling among themselves, the same Apostle criticized them sharply, and wrote to them: “If ye bite and devour one another, so see to it that ye are not destroyed, one of the other.”
As true as this may be, my beloved, that brotherly love is an indispensable proof or token of true Christianity, that without love all other virtues are empty symbols, and all of the highest gifts are worthless, and that bickering and quarreling can lead only to damnation, it by no means follows that now for us the time has come at last, once and for all, to give up the battle for the purity of doctrine of our church. For the holy Apostle, as we have already heard, writes the following in our text: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write not you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Concerning the true faith, the Apostle also states that it has “once been delivered to the saints”. The true faith, or, what is the same thing, pure doctrine, is not given to the saints, but only entrusted to them, that means, not given to them as a gift, but merely turned over to them; not made as one of their possessions, over which they may be free lords, and which they can handle according to their own moods and fancy, but is entrusted to them as something strange, namely a Goods of God and His Possession, and that they are only servants and householders of it, faithfully to protect and handle it.
True Love
Now, answer yourself: does love demand of a manager that he take some of the goods entrusted to him and sell it, or that he dismiss, or remit, some of the debt to those indebted to his lord? Or that he quietly allow that the treasures of his lord, which he has been committed to watch and to guard, be taken away? Was it love, for example, as that manager, in order to make friends with the debtors of his lord who owed him a hundred tons of oil, said: “Take your bill, sit down, and write quickly ‘50’”? Was that not much rather unfaithfulness, yes, even open deceit and robbery?
Therefore, does not Jesus Himself, even for this reason, call him the “unjust steward.” Furthermore, was that true love when the general, to avoid further warfare and fighting, allows only a small opening to be made in the wall of the fortress given over to him for protection against the enemy? Would not such a general be dragged to judgment, and punished as a traitor?
Or, is it love to pilfer from another that which is his, in order to give it to the poor? And lastly, would that have been true love, had Luther silenced the recognized and known truth, when on its account fighting would arise from it? So, judge for yourself, would that also be love when we Lutherans now give up the battle at last, and under the “pretext” that it is only for the true administration of the entrusted pure doctrine for the sake of making them friends of mankind? Or that we value them as charitable and peace-loving people, and so let them proceed?
No, it would not be brotherly love or neighborly love, to say nothing of Godly love ,but self-love; not true management over that which is from God, and entrusted to us only for administration, but vile, outrageous betrayal of another’s goods. Yes, nothing else before God but theft and robbery: robbers shall not inherit eternal life.
True, pure love should be ready for the sake of peace, in such things in which we have the power, to relent, but no in things over which not we, but another, has power to advise. And well should our love be ready, to sacrifice to our neighbor everything that we possess, even our life, where necessary; however, not another’s, but only our own, goods. Therefore, Luther cried out once in the year 1522 against his opponents: “My love is ready to die for you: “My love is ready to die for you; but the faith or the Word you should worship. To our love, ascribe all the fault that you want, but our faith, in all things, you must honor.”
Love Christ’s Word
Oh, my faithful Lutherans, partners in faith, confession, and warfare, so let us not err in these matters, when a person accuses those of lack of love who continue to refuse to give up the battle for the pure doctrine. Consider, this teaching is, as our text states, the faith “which was once delivered to the saints”.
They are not our possessions, over which we have power and freedom of disposition, or retailing them; they are, much rather, God’s possessions, which we have merely to administer. And not only us, but all Christendom; yes, the whole world: to preserve them keep them, and hand them over – undamaged – to posterity. First on that day will God say to us Lutherans in respect to the purity of doctrine of His Word, which was entrusted to us: “Give a reckoning of thy stewardship.”
True, it is a bitter shame to let yourself be considered as a heartless and loveless person; yes, believe it, my beloved, this disgrace will often break the hearts of the contenders fur the purity of God’s Word. However, this disgrace all the contenders have carried time and time again. Therefore, our godly, devout fathers of our church have said in the Confessional Writings of our church: “It is a sad and difficult thing when one separates so many countries and peoples, and would teach a singular doctrine. But here stands God’s command that each person shall watch, guard himself, and not be in unanimity with those who teach a wrong doctrine.’
So let us, then, exhibit our love richly, so that this world sees that in us Lutherans that love nevertheless lives in all earthly or temporal things. In divine matters, however, in the pure doctrine of God’s Word, which was “once delivered to the saints”, let Christ’s declaration be our maxim and guiding star: “He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he that loves son or daughter more that Me is not worthy of Me.”
A United Peace Movement
II
Also, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, the battle concerning the pure doctrine in our church cannot be given up in the second place because the loss of this jewel or treasure would be something more horrible than all the fighting and lack of peace among men.
It is true, my beloved, that the battles and quarreling which are carried on again and again throughout all Christendom, not only between the different church bodies, but also among members of one and the same church, is so great a pity (misery) that it cannot be declared with enough words, and cannot be sufficiently deplored; yes it cannot be bewailed enough with bloody tears.
Is it not a pity that these quarrel with one another who all want to be children of one and the same Heavenly father, servants of one and the same Savior, temples of one and the same Holy Spirit? Is it not a pity that those who are united, joined as one man, should be battling against the countless and mighty enemies of Christendom, unleash their swords against themselves? How must Satan rejoice and shout when he sees this disunity among Christians! How many unbelievers take offense, and therefore have no desire to be a Christian, by which they argue: how can that be the only saving religion, whose confessors (professors), so to say, rend each other to pieces?
And how many weak Christians are thereby misled and fall away to the world again? What about that? Many ask: “Is it not high time that we Lutherans give up once and for all this battle for the purity of doctrine in our church? That we, as Isaiah prophesied, turn our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks? That we conclude a peace treaty with all Christians, and stretch forth the reconciling hand of brotherly love, and join with them in one great united peace movement?”
Certainly, my hearers, could we Lutherans purchase with blood a holy, universal peace treaty, so should no Lutheran, much less any Lutheran pastor, value his blood so highly, but for this cause much rather spill his blood, with exceeding great joy. And yet, my brethren, we cannot give up the battle for the pure doctrine in our church.
We are taught this on all the pages of God’s Word, and we are also taught this out of our text when it states: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation (unser aller Heil), it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.” See there, because the apostle wanted to write to them of the “common salvation”, he therefore held it necessary to admonish them first of all that they should “contend for the faith”. According to this apostle’s definition we are dealing with nothing less than our “common salvation”.
We Cannot give Up the Battle
How, then? May we, can we, now at last give up this battle for the pure Bible doctrine in our church? Nevermore? Yes, if the battle concerns gold and goods, honor before men, good days; briefly, when we battle for earthly, temporal things. Woe is us when we do not ask whether the peace in the world and in the church will be upset, whether the unbeliever and the weak Christian will be offended, whether God’s work will be hindered thereby or not.
But it is another matter when we “contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints”. There, we battle not for earthly, temporal goods but for eternal values; here, we battle not for human but for God’s honor; here, we battle, not for this life, but for eternal life; here, we battle, in the words of our text, for the “common salvation”.
For this cause, all the prophets and apostles, yes, Christ Himself, have already—again and again—battled for the pure faith. Christ testifies explicitly in Matthew 10: “Do not think I am come to send peace on the earth. I am not come to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father; daughter against her mother; and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” The dissension which thereby insures that one contends for the pure faith is, therefore, not an unholy dissension, but a blessed dissension, which Christ Himself does not cause to cease, nor does He forbid it, but rather He is come to send it, and to raise it up, in this world.
If no one should falsify God’s word, then certainly no battle would be necessary; yea, it would be an evil, a horrible sin. However, Flesh, World, and Satan continue to go out, again and again to falsify God’s Word, or the pure doctrine. And never has it been falsified as just now in our time, so that even now millions, by the poison of false teaching, die the eternal death.
Dare we, can we, be silent thereto, just so that the temporal peace is not disturbed? Is it more horrible that the temporal peace is taken from man, or is it not much more horrible that the Word of God, which alone is able to save our souls, is pilfered from us? Is this not of more value than the whole world? Does not Christ Himself therefore say; “What shall it profit man, if he shall gain the whole world…” (also, the peace of the entire world) “ . . and lose his own soul?”
Consider the Results
Consider the results, if in the years of the fourth century the doctrine of Christ’s divinity, as it was attacked by Arius, had not been battled by Athanasius, or any one else. Consider the result as in the fifth century, if the doctrine of the conversion of man solely by grace, as it was attacked by Pelagius, had not been battled for by Augustine, or any one else. Consider that result in the 16th century if the whole doctrine of Christ, as was falsified by the papacy, neither Luther nor anyone else had battled against it.
Consider the result if, in the last century, as Rationalism penetrated the Christian church, none had battled against it. Surely, there would have been much less quarreling and disunity in the world, but where would the pure Word of God be now? Where, the Lutheran Church? Where would the correct doctrine of the way to salvation be? All of these would long ago have disappeared forever from the face of the earth, and therewith the salvation and blessedness of uncounted numbers of people would have been lost.
Oh, my faithful, let us mourn and lament, then, over that time and again erring spirits attack the pure doctrine, and thereby are to be blamed for the battle and strife in the church. However, over this let us not lament, but much rather praise and thank God that He awakens men who will battle against the erring spirits for, and I repeat it, “our common salvation” is at stake.
The Battle Must Continue
III
So also, my hearers, the greatest and most uncontestable ground why the battle for the pure doctrine of our church dare not and cannot be surrendered in this; while this battle is one commanded by God, and therefore highly blessed, both in time and in eternity. Allow me, then, to speak to you, in the third place, and grant me your attention for these few moments more.
There are truly in this day, many well-meaning Christians who say: since not all battling for the doctrine is to be cast out—and, true, we must occasionally battle with all our might for the same (it was, for example, perfectly right that Luther for a quarter of a century heroically battled for the true doctrine, as a lion unto the death, against the falsifications of the papacy; for his battle ended in such a result, the like of which the history of the church has never before exhibited or known)—but now it is clearly the time, once and for all, to make an end to the battle for the truth in our church; and instead of fighting one another, we should much rather build together; in place of the word, grab hold of the trowel. For what has been the outcome of all this strife in our time? Nothing but greater divisions and confusions.
These preachers of peace, no matter how good their intentions, still are encompassed by a very great error.
The Battle Is Blessed
First of all, is it not true that, in our time, during these more than thirty years of battling for the pure doctrine of our church, we have had only greater divisions and confusions as a result? But much more – to the glory of God alone is it declared—that, as a direct result of these battles, the church of the Reformation has stood up in its shining, golden purity of doctrine; more than a thousand congregations have again shared with us in the old pure confession of our church, and from our America has gone out the sound of the old pure gospel into all lands, and has everywhere gained new professors of the truth and gathered them under the old and good banner of our pious fathers.
And, secondly, thousands upon thousands who were at the point of giving up entirely the old eternal faith have, in the smallest part, come to a standstill on the road of error, a greater part have moved to a return to the way of the truth they neglected. Even the present battle has been richly and gloriously blessed by God above all hope, prayers, and understanding.
Even though this were not so; and even if it would appear more so, as if at last in our day all battle for the pure doctrine of our church were absolutely unsuccessful and useless, even so still we would not dare to, nor could we, give up at any time this battle. And why? Because the great God in clear words has commanded it. For who is it, who among others, in our text through the apostle Jude summons all the saints; that is, all believing Christians, so earnestly that they “contend for the faith once delivered to the saints?” It is the great God Himself. For, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What more do we need to add? Yes, what man, or what angel, will hazard it, that when God says “contend”, to say “contend not!”
And so when we contend at the command of the great God, dare we then at any time fear that our battle will be useless? Nevermore! What God does, or orders to be done, that cannot be anything else but blessed in time and in eternity. Even so, the wise man, Sirach, also wrote: “Uphold the truth unto the death; so will God, the Lord, fight for you.” (Sirach 4:33).
God Command Us to Contend
Oh, so let us then not listen to those who, although they praise and glorify a former Reformation battle but would have nothing to do with a similar battle in our day. God’s command; “Contend for the faith!” applies to all, even for our day. Let our hearts be kindled by the same fiery zeal with which Luther and his faithful assistants battled. Let us not cowardly and without a fight surrender what they, by hot war, and with word, writing, blood, and tears have conquered and won, but faithfully guard and courageously defend it against all attacks, even unto death. Let us not consider any clearly revealed truth as unimportant, or allow its falsification; for here this applies: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole loaf.” Let us not be bothered if any man, for the sake of our battle, should cast out our names as those most evil. Also Luther and his assistants had to experience this, and now they bring blessings to always more millions, even after they have rested already so long in their graves. Let us prove ourselves even, not as degenerate, but as honorable, true children of the Reformation, so will it also be, that long after we lie – dust by dust—our children and our children’s children shall also bless us.
It is established, my beloved, that our names will remain for the sake of our battles for the pure doctrine of our church, disgraced before men until the judgment day; but then so will it be when we endure faithfully in the battle, as sure as God is faithful and true, and for the sake of Jesus, the judgment day will be the day of our crowning, and entire eternity shall be our victory and peace festival. Oh, what joy, what glory that will be, when also we, we poor, here despised, rejected, and hated people shall have been taken up into the uncounted multitudes of the holy army of God, from Adam on unto the last of the faithful contenders, who triumph before God’s throne.
So, I call to all of you in closing:
Up, Oh, Christian man; up, to battle; up, up to the conquering! In this world, in this time, there is no rest to be found. Who will not fight, wears not the crown, nor has any part of eternal life. Amen.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
A Reformation Sermon
A Reformation Sermon,
October 21, 1876. Translated by Rev. Arnold T. Jonas, Pilgrim Lutheran Church (Deaf), Los Angeles, Calif. (Retired)
“Lord Jesus, hot was the battle which once our fathers had to wage, but glorious was the victory which You granted unto them. Therefore, we thank and praise you today with joyful mouth and tongue. For that for which our fathers strove, Your true, and precious, and saving Word that is still ours-their children-today: a precious heritage.
Still the holy war is never fully brought to an end. What we have today, the enemy attempts again and again to wrest from us again. Therefore, You, again and again, call forth to us: “Contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints.” “Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Oh, so help us, then, that the remembrance of our fathers, who battled so steadfastly and faithfully, and are since in death, will influence us today, so that also in our day we battle as did they, so that we also may triumph as they, and one be crowned with Thee, to celebrate with them also—from eternity to eternity. Amen.”
TEXT: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Jude, v. 3
Christ vs. Satan
The History of the Reformation, which remembrance we celebrate today, is the history of the continuous war for about 30 years, from the year 1517 on, as Luther openly nailed his ninety-five theses against the papal tyranny, until the year 1546, when Luther died. This was not much a physical as it was a spiritual battle.
On the one side stood Luther, a weaponless monk, no weapons in his hand other than the Bible, and seconded only by a few, and mostly sagging, friends; on the other side stood the well-armed Pope, the physical and spiritual sword, as he called them, that is, the political and churchly powers, in his hand, and seconded by an uncountable band of church prelates, cardinals, bishops, archbishops, priests, monks, and nuns, as well as by the greatest earthly power in all Christendom of that age, the Emperor.
On the one side stood Error; on the other side, the Truth. On the one side, man’s word; on the other, God’s Word; and what was the chief fact, on the one side stood the invisible Jesus Christ, the King of Truth, and Prince of Salvation with all His holy angels; on the other side, Satan, the prince of darkness and damnation, with all of his hellish hosts.
I Will Not Recant
Today, just 359 years ago, on October 31, 1517, it was that Luther made manifest the battle to the pope with his ninety-five theses, that he would oppose him, girded with the sword of the Spirit, as David once with his slingshot opposed Goliath; and stepped out of his monk’s cloister, in the Name of the Lord, the Living God, upon the plain and gave the signal to contact the enemy to all who wished to stand on the side of the Lord, and His true church, in the most holy war that ever had been upon the face of the earth.
So then followed one skirmish after another, orally as well as penned. In the year 1518, Luther withstood at first a secret duel in Augsburg with the cardinal Cajetan, which dealt only with the little world “revoco”, that means, “I recant”, but all the persuasive oratory of the sly Italian was fruitless. Luther took back nothing and so left the battleground the victor.
In the year 1519 followed an open battle between Luther and the papal sophist, Dr Eck, at the Leipzig Disputation in which the authority of the pope and councils was dealt with; but at the final conclusion of the same, all who were of the truth – even papists – conceded the battle prize to Luther. Two years after, in the year 1521, Luther was at last cited to appear in Worms personally before the Emperor and the empire to be questioned, and that then sentence be spoken.
All the friends of Luther trembled, only he did not; he moreover made clear: “And if there are as many devils in Worms as there are house gables, still I will enter therein; and if my enemies should build a fire from Wittenberg to Worms, that reached up to the heavens, so will I tread not the mouth of the behemoth, between his teeth, to acknowledge Jesus Christ – and let him do as he pleases.”
So began then a hot encounter—but see! As Daniel emerged from the lion’s den, and as the three men came out of the furnace unsinged, so Luther went out of Worms again unbeaten, for his final, closing remark was (and still remains): “I will not recant; here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” A second hot Reformation blow was struck by the giving over of our Confession to the council of emperors at Augsburg in the year 1530.
God’s Word or Reason
The history of the Reformation is, my hearers, not only the history of a battle from without, but also a spiritual leaders battle; namely, that afterwards the Swiss preacher Zwingli, who at the beginning was one with Luther, and with him battled for God’s Word against the papal, man’s, doctrine, Zwingli fell away again, and proclaimed that it was against reason to believe that Christ’s body and blood were in the Sacrament. With horror, Luther saw through this, that Zwingli wanted to set human reason in the pope’s place.
So it came as an inevitable result of many unsuccessful war letters between Luther and Zwingli that in the year 1520 the Colloquy of Marburg was held, which ended in the two opposing camps. Whether the true and almighty words of the Son of God: “This is My body; this is My blood,” should stand; whether it should be God’s Word, or reason – or whether reason must alter God’s Word. That was the second causus belili, the second great battle question, which should be clearly defined at Marburg. And, may God be praised, Luther did not falter here, either. As in Worms, when he freed God’s Word from the authority of the pope, so he, at Marburg, freed God’s Word from the authority of human reason.
And so Luther carried the battle forward, until he at last was called into the land of eternal peace, there to be crowned, and, with all true warriors, to celebrate the Festival of Triumph of Eternal Life.
What, now, my brethren? Has the battle of the Reformation at last brought peace to the church? Oh, no! Triumph comes to the church only above; here, the battle must be carried on till the echo of the last trumpet. God’s Word gives witness to this on all its pages, and also Jude, with many others, writes the same in our text.
“FIGHT THE BATTLE OF FATIH”
I. THE PURE DOCTRINE OF OUR CHURHC IS NOT OUR POSSESSION,
BUT IS AN UNEARNED GOOD, TO US FOR HONEST MANAGEMENT.
II. WHILE THE DESPISIG OF THE LEAST OF THEIS IS SOMETHING
MORE HORRIFYIGN THAN ALL FIGHTING, AND THE LACK OF PEACE.
III. IT IS A BATTLE COMMANDED BY GOD, AND, THEREFORE, IS TRULY
BLESSED, IN TIME AND IN ETERNITY.
I.
The first reason why man thinks “It is about time for the battle for the true doctrine in our church to come finally to an end,” is because this eternal bickering and quarreling, as one calls it, is against Love. Man quotes Jesus, Who says in plain words: “Thereby shall ye be known that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.” So also John writes: “He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” Yes, Paul says, convincingly” “Though I talk with the tongues of men and angels, but have no charity, so am I soundless brass, and a tinkling cymbal. Now abides these three: faith, hope, and charity, and the greatest of these is charity.” When the Galatians were bickering and quarreling among themselves, the same Apostle criticized them sharply, and wrote to them: “If ye bite and devour one another, so see to it that ye are not destroyed, one of the other.”
As true as this may be, my beloved, that brotherly love is an indispensable proof or token of true Christianity, that without love all other virtues are empty symbols, and all of the highest gifts are worthless, and that bickering and quarreling can lead only to damnation, it by no means follows that now for us the time has come at last, once and for all, to give up the battle for the purity of doctrine of our church. For the holy Apostle, as we have already heard, writes the following in our text: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write not you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Concerning the true faith, the Apostle also states that it has “once been delivered to the saints”. The true faith, or, what is the same thing, pure doctrine, is not given to the saints, but only entrusted to them, that means, not given to them as a gift, but merely turned over to them; not made as one of their possessions, over which they may be free lords, and which they can handle according to their own moods and fancy, but is entrusted to them as something strange, namely a Goods of God and His Possession, and that they are only servants and householders of it, faithfully to protect and handle it.
True Love
Now, answer yourself: does love demand of a manager that he take some of the goods entrusted to him and sell it, or that he dismiss, or remit, some of the debt to those indebted to his lord? Or that he quietly allow that the treasures of his lord, which he has been committed to watch and to guard, be taken away? Was it love, for example, as that manager, in order to make friends with the debtors of his lord who owed him a hundred tons of oil, said: “Take your bill, sit down, and write quickly ‘50’”? Was that not much rather unfaithfulness, yes, even open deceit and robbery?
Therefore, does not Jesus Himself, even for this reason, call him the “unjust steward” Furthermore, was that true love when the general, to avoid further warfare and fighting, allows only a small opening to be made in the wall of the fortress given over to him for protection against the enemy? Would not such a general be dragged to judgment, and punished as a traitor?
Or, is it love to pilfer from another that which is his, in order to give it to the poor? And lastly, would that have been true love, had Luther silenced the recognized and known truth, when on its account fighting would arise from it? So, judge for yourself, would that also be love when we Lutherans now give up the battle at last, and under the “pretext” that it is only for the true administration of the entrusted pure doctrine for the sake of making them friends of mankind? Or that we value them as charitable and peace-loving people, and so let them proceed?
No, it would not be brotherly love or neighborly love, to say nothing of Godly love ,but self-love; not true management over that which is from God, and entrusted to us only for administration, but vile, outrageous betrayal of another’s goods. Yes, nothing else before God but theft and robbery: robbers shall not inherit eternal life.
True, pure love should be ready for the sake of peace, in such things in which we have the power, to relent, but no in things over which not we, but another, has power to advise. And well should our love be ready, to sacrifice to our neighbor everything that we possess, even our life, where necessary; however, not another’s, but only our own, goods. Therefore, Luther cried out once in the year 1522 against his opponents: “My love is ready to die for you: “My love is ready to die for you; but the faith or the Word you should worship. To our love, ascribe all the fault that you want, but our faith, in all things, you must honor.”
Love Christ’s Word
Oh, my faithful Lutherans, partners in faith, confession, and warfare, so let us not err in these matters, when a person accuses those of lack of love who continue to refuse to give up the battle for the pure doctrine. Consider, this teaching is, as our text states, the faith “which was once delivered to the saints”.
They are not our possessions, over which we have power and freedom of disposition, or retailing them; they are, much rather, God’s possessions, which we have merely to administer. And not only us, but all Christendom; yes, the whole world: to preserve them keep them, and hand them over – undamaged – to posterity. First on that day will God say to us Lutherans in respect to the purity of doctrine of His Word, which was entrusted to us: “Give a reckoning of thy stewardship.”
True, it is a bitter shame to let yourself be considered as a heartless and loveless person; yes, believe it, my beloved, this disgrace will often break the hearts of the contenders fur the purity of God’s Word. However, this disgrace all the contenders have carried time and time again. Therefore, our godly, devout fathers of our church have said in the Confessional Writings of our church: “It is a sad and difficult thing when one separates so many countries and peoples, and would teach a singular doctrine. But here stands God’s command that each person shall watch, guard himself, and not be in unanimity with those who teach a wrong doctrine.’
So let us, then, exhibit our love richly, so that this world sees that in us Lutherans that love nevertheless lives in all earthly or temporal things. In divine matters, however, in the pure doctrine of God’s Word, which was “once delivered to the saints”, let Christ’s declaration be our maxim and guiding star: “He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he that loves son or daughter more that Me is not worthy of Me.”
A United Peace Movement
II
Also, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, the battle concerning the pure doctrine in our church cannot be given up in the second place because the loss of this jewel or treasure would be something more horrible than all the fighting and lack of peace among men.
It is true, my beloved, that the battles and quarreling which are carried on again and again throughout all Christendom, not only between the different church bodies, but also among members of one and the same church, is so great a pity (misery) that it cannot be declared with enough words, and cannot be sufficiently deplored; yes it cannot be bewailed enough with bloody tears.
Is it not a pity that these quarrel with one another who all want to be children of one and the same Heavenly father, servants of one and the same Savior, temples of one and the same Holy Spirit? Is it not a pity that those who are united, joined as one man, should be battling against the countless and mighty enemies of Christendom, unleash their swords against themselves? How must Satan rejoice and shout when he sees this disunity among Christians! How many unbelievers take offense, and therefore have no desire to be a Christian, by which they argue: how can that be the only saving religion, whose confessors (professors), so to say, rend each other to pieces?
And how many weak Christians are thereby misled and fall away to the world again? What about that? Many ask: “Is it not high time that we Lutherans give up once and for all this battle for the purity of doctrine in our church? That we, as Isaiah prophesied, turn our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks? That we conclude a peace treaty with all Christians, and stretch forth the reconciling hand of brotherly love, and join with them in one great united peace movement?”
Certainly, my hearers, could we Lutherans purchase with blood a holy, universal peace treaty, so should no Lutheran, much less any Lutheran pastor, value his blood so highly, but for this cause much rather spill his blood, with exceeding great joy. And yet, my brethren, we cannot give up the battle for the pure doctrine in our church.
We are taught this on all the pages of God’s Word, and we are also taught this out of our text when it states: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation (unser aller Heil), it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.” See there, because the apostle wanted to write to them of the “common salvation”, he therefore held it necessary to admonish them first of all that they should “contend for the faith”. According t this apostle’s definition we are dealing with nothing less than our “common salvation”.
We Cannot give Up the Battle
How, then? May we, can we, now at last give up this battle for the pure Bible doctrine in our church? Nevermore? Yes, if the battle concerns gold and goods, honor before men, good days; briefly, when we battle for earthly, temporal things. Woe is us when we do not ask whether the peace in the world and in the church will be upset, whether the unbeliever and the weak Christian will be offended, whether God’s work will be hindered thereby or not.
But it is another matter when we “contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints”. There, we battle not for earthly, temporal goods but for eternal values; here, we battle not for human but for God’s honor; here, we battle, not for this life, but for eternal life; here, we battle, in the words of our text, for the “common salvation”.
For this cause, all the prophets and apostles, yes, Christ Himself, have already—again and again—battled for the pure faith. Christ testifies explicitly in Matthew 10: “Do not think I am come to send peace on the earth. I am not come to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father; daughter against her mother; and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” The dissension which thereby insures that one contends for the pure faith is, therefore, not an unholy dissension, but a blessed dissension, which Christ Himself does not cause to cease, nor does He forbid it, but rather He is come to send it, and to raise it up, in this world.
If no one should falsify God’s word, then certainly no battle would be necessary; yea, it would be an evil, a horrible sin. However, Flesh, World, and Satan continue to go out, again and again to falsify God’s Word, or the pure doctrine. And never has it been falsified as just now in our time, so that even now millions, by the poison of false teaching, die the eternal death.
Dare we, can we, be silent thereto, just so that the temporal peace is not distributed? Is it more horrible that the temporal peace is taken from man, or is it not much more horrible that the Word of God, which alone is able to save our souls, is pilfered from us? Is this not of more value than the whole world? Does not Christ Himself therefore say; “What shall it profit man, if he shall gain the whole world…” (also, the peace of the entire world) “ . . and lose his own soul?”
Consider the Results
Consider the results, if in the years of the fourth century the doctrine of Christ’s divinity, as it was attacked by Arius, had not been battled by Athanasius, or any one else. Consider the result as in the fifth century, if the doctrine of the conversion of man solely by grace, as it was attacked by Pelagius, had not been battled for by Augustine, or any one else. Consider that result in the 16th century if the whole doctrine of Christ, as was falsified by the papacy, neither Luther nor anyone else had battled against it.
Consider the result if, in the last century, as Rationalism penetrated the Christian church, none had battled against it. Surely, there would have been much less quarreling and disunity in the world, but where would the pure Word of God be now? Where, the Lutheran Church? Where would the correct doctrine of the way to salvation be? All of these would long ago have disappeared forever from the face of the earth, and therewith the salvation and blessedness of uncounted numbers of people would have been lost.
Oh, my faithful, let us mourn and lament, then, over that time and again erring spirits attack the pure doctrine, and thereby are to be blamed for the battle and strife in the church. However, over this let us not lament, but much rather praise and thank God that He awakens men who will battle against the erring spirits for, and I repeat it, “our common salvation” is at stake.
The Battle Must Continue
III
So also, my hearers, the greatest and most uncontestable ground why the battle for the pure doctrine of our church dare not and cannot be surrendered in this; while this battle is one commanded by God, and therefore highly blessed, both in time and in eternity. Allow me, then, to speak to you, in the third place, and grant me your attention for these few moments more.
There are truly in this day, many well-meaning Christians who say: since not all battling for the doctrine is to be cast out—and, true, we must occasionally battle with all our might for the same (it was, for example, perfectly right that Luther for a quarter of a century heroically battled for the true doctrine, as a lion unto the death, against the falsifications of the papacy; for his battle ended in such a result, the like of which the history of the church has never before exhibited or known)—but now it is clearly the time, once and for all, to make an end to the battle for the truth in our church; and instead of fighting one another, we should much rather build together; in place of the word, grab hold of the towel. For what has been the outcome of all this strife in our time? Nothing but greater divisions and confusions.
These preachers of peace, no matter how good their intentions, still are encompassed b a very great error.
The Battle Is Blessed
First of all, is it not true that, in our time, during these more than thirty years of battling for the pure doctrine of our church, we have had only greater divisions and confusions as a result? But much more – to the glory of God alone is it declared—that, as a direct result of these battles, the church of the Reformation has stood up in its shining, golden purity of doctrine; more than a thousand congregations have again shared with us in the old pure confession of our church, and from our America has gone out the sound of the old pure gospel into all lands, and has everywhere gained new professors of the truth and gathered them under the old and good banner of our pious fathers.
And, secondly, thousands upon thousands who were at the point of giving up entirely the old eternal faith have, in the smallest part, come to a standstill on the road of error, a greater part have moved to a return to the way of the truth they neglected. Even the present battle has been richly and gloriously blessed by God above all hope, prayers, and understanding.
Even though this were not so;; and even if it would appear more so, as if at last in our day all battle for the pure doctrine of our church were absolutely unsuccessful and useless, even so still we would not dare to, nor could we, give up at any time this battle. And why? Because the great God in clear words has commanded it. For who is it, who among others, in our text through the apostle Jude summons all the saints; that is, all believing Christians, so earnestly that they “contend for the faith once delivered to the saints?” It is the great God Himself. For, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What more do we need to add? Yes, what man, or what angel, will hazard it, that when God says “contend”, to say “contend not!”
And so when we contend at the command of the great God, dare we then at any time fear that our battle will be useless? Nevermore! What God does, or orders to be done, that cannot be anything else but blessed in time and in eternity. Even so, the wise man, Sirach, also wrote: “Uphold the truth unto the death; so will God, the Lord, fight for you.” (Sirach 4:33).
God Command Us to Contend
Oh, so let us then not listen to those who, although they praise and glorify a former Reformation battle but would have nothing to do with a similar battle in our day. God’s command; “Contend for the faith!” applies to all, even for our day. Let our hearts be kindled by the same fiery zeal with which Luther and his faithful assistants battled. Let us not cowardly and without a fight surrender what they, by hot war, and with word, writing, blood, and tears have conquered and won, but faithfully guard and courageously defend it against all attacks, even unto death. Let us not consider any clearly revealed truth as unimportant, or allow its falsification; for here this applies: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole loaf.” Let us not be bothered if any man, for the sake of our battle, should cast out our names as those most evil. Also Luther and his assistants had to experience this, and now they bring blessings to always more millions, even after they have rested already so long in their graves. Let us prove ourselves even, not as degenerate, but as honorable, true children of the Reformation, so will it also be, that long after we lie – dust by dust—our children and our children’s children shall also bless us.
It is established, my beloved, that our names will remain for he sake of our battles for the pure doctrine of our church, disgraced before men until the judgment day; but then so will lit be when we endure faithfully in the battle, as sure as God is faithful and true, and for the sake of Jesus, the judgment day will be the day of our crowning, and entire eternity shall be our victory and peach festival. Oh, what joy, what glory that will be, when also we, we poor, here despised, rejected, and hated people shall have been taken up into the uncounted multitudes of the holy army of God, from Adam on unto the last of the faithful contenders, who triumph before God’s throne.
So, I call to all of you in closing:
Up, Oh, Christian man; up, to battle; up, up to the conquering! In this world, in this time, there is no rest to be found. Who will not fight, wears not the crown, nor has any part of eternal life. Amen.
October 21, 1876. Translated by Rev. Arnold T. Jonas, Pilgrim Lutheran Church (Deaf), Los Angeles, Calif. (Retired)
“Lord Jesus, hot was the battle which once our fathers had to wage, but glorious was the victory which You granted unto them. Therefore, we thank and praise you today with joyful mouth and tongue. For that for which our fathers strove, Your true, and precious, and saving Word that is still ours-their children-today: a precious heritage.
Still the holy war is never fully brought to an end. What we have today, the enemy attempts again and again to wrest from us again. Therefore, You, again and again, call forth to us: “Contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints.” “Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Oh, so help us, then, that the remembrance of our fathers, who battled so steadfastly and faithfully, and are since in death, will influence us today, so that also in our day we battle as did they, so that we also may triumph as they, and one be crowned with Thee, to celebrate with them also—from eternity to eternity. Amen.”
TEXT: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Jude, v. 3
Christ vs. Satan
The History of the Reformation, which remembrance we celebrate today, is the history of the continuous war for about 30 years, from the year 1517 on, as Luther openly nailed his ninety-five theses against the papal tyranny, until the year 1546, when Luther died. This was not much a physical as it was a spiritual battle.
On the one side stood Luther, a weaponless monk, no weapons in his hand other than the Bible, and seconded only by a few, and mostly sagging, friends; on the other side stood the well-armed Pope, the physical and spiritual sword, as he called them, that is, the political and churchly powers, in his hand, and seconded by an uncountable band of church prelates, cardinals, bishops, archbishops, priests, monks, and nuns, as well as by the greatest earthly power in all Christendom of that age, the Emperor.
On the one side stood Error; on the other side, the Truth. On the one side, man’s word; on the other, God’s Word; and what was the chief fact, on the one side stood the invisible Jesus Christ, the King of Truth, and Prince of Salvation with all His holy angels; on the other side, Satan, the prince of darkness and damnation, with all of his hellish hosts.
I Will Not Recant
Today, just 359 years ago, on October 31, 1517, it was that Luther made manifest the battle to the pope with his ninety-five theses, that he would oppose him, girded with the sword of the Spirit, as David once with his slingshot opposed Goliath; and stepped out of his monk’s cloister, in the Name of the Lord, the Living God, upon the plain and gave the signal to contact the enemy to all who wished to stand on the side of the Lord, and His true church, in the most holy war that ever had been upon the face of the earth.
So then followed one skirmish after another, orally as well as penned. In the year 1518, Luther withstood at first a secret duel in Augsburg with the cardinal Cajetan, which dealt only with the little world “revoco”, that means, “I recant”, but all the persuasive oratory of the sly Italian was fruitless. Luther took back nothing and so left the battleground the victor.
In the year 1519 followed an open battle between Luther and the papal sophist, Dr Eck, at the Leipzig Disputation in which the authority of the pope and councils was dealt with; but at the final conclusion of the same, all who were of the truth – even papists – conceded the battle prize to Luther. Two years after, in the year 1521, Luther was at last cited to appear in Worms personally before the Emperor and the empire to be questioned, and that then sentence be spoken.
All the friends of Luther trembled, only he did not; he moreover made clear: “And if there are as many devils in Worms as there are house gables, still I will enter therein; and if my enemies should build a fire from Wittenberg to Worms, that reached up to the heavens, so will I tread not the mouth of the behemoth, between his teeth, to acknowledge Jesus Christ – and let him do as he pleases.”
So began then a hot encounter—but see! As Daniel emerged from the lion’s den, and as the three men came out of the furnace unsinged, so Luther went out of Worms again unbeaten, for his final, closing remark was (and still remains): “I will not recant; here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” A second hot Reformation blow was struck by the giving over of our Confession to the council of emperors at Augsburg in the year 1530.
God’s Word or Reason
The history of the Reformation is, my hearers, not only the history of a battle from without, but also a spiritual leaders battle; namely, that afterwards the Swiss preacher Zwingli, who at the beginning was one with Luther, and with him battled for God’s Word against the papal, man’s, doctrine, Zwingli fell away again, and proclaimed that it was against reason to believe that Christ’s body and blood were in the Sacrament. With horror, Luther saw through this, that Zwingli wanted to set human reason in the pope’s place.
So it came as an inevitable result of many unsuccessful war letters between Luther and Zwingli that in the year 1520 the Colloquy of Marburg was held, which ended in the two opposing camps. Whether the true and almighty words of the Son of God: “This is My body; this is My blood,” should stand; whether it should be God’s Word, or reason – or whether reason must alter God’s Word. That was the second causus belili, the second great battle question, which should be clearly defined at Marburg. And, may God be praised, Luther did not falter here, either. As in Worms, when he freed God’s Word from the authority of the pope, so he, at Marburg, freed God’s Word from the authority of human reason.
And so Luther carried the battle forward, until he at last was called into the land of eternal peace, there to be crowned, and, with all true warriors, to celebrate the Festival of Triumph of Eternal Life.
What, now, my brethren? Has the battle of the Reformation at last brought peace to the church? Oh, no! Triumph comes to the church only above; here, the battle must be carried on till the echo of the last trumpet. God’s Word gives witness to this on all its pages, and also Jude, with many others, writes the same in our text.
“FIGHT THE BATTLE OF FATIH”
I. THE PURE DOCTRINE OF OUR CHURHC IS NOT OUR POSSESSION,
BUT IS AN UNEARNED GOOD, TO US FOR HONEST MANAGEMENT.
II. WHILE THE DESPISIG OF THE LEAST OF THEIS IS SOMETHING
MORE HORRIFYIGN THAN ALL FIGHTING, AND THE LACK OF PEACE.
III. IT IS A BATTLE COMMANDED BY GOD, AND, THEREFORE, IS TRULY
BLESSED, IN TIME AND IN ETERNITY.
I.
The first reason why man thinks “It is about time for the battle for the true doctrine in our church to come finally to an end,” is because this eternal bickering and quarreling, as one calls it, is against Love. Man quotes Jesus, Who says in plain words: “Thereby shall ye be known that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.” So also John writes: “He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” Yes, Paul says, convincingly” “Though I talk with the tongues of men and angels, but have no charity, so am I soundless brass, and a tinkling cymbal. Now abides these three: faith, hope, and charity, and the greatest of these is charity.” When the Galatians were bickering and quarreling among themselves, the same Apostle criticized them sharply, and wrote to them: “If ye bite and devour one another, so see to it that ye are not destroyed, one of the other.”
As true as this may be, my beloved, that brotherly love is an indispensable proof or token of true Christianity, that without love all other virtues are empty symbols, and all of the highest gifts are worthless, and that bickering and quarreling can lead only to damnation, it by no means follows that now for us the time has come at last, once and for all, to give up the battle for the purity of doctrine of our church. For the holy Apostle, as we have already heard, writes the following in our text: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write not you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Concerning the true faith, the Apostle also states that it has “once been delivered to the saints”. The true faith, or, what is the same thing, pure doctrine, is not given to the saints, but only entrusted to them, that means, not given to them as a gift, but merely turned over to them; not made as one of their possessions, over which they may be free lords, and which they can handle according to their own moods and fancy, but is entrusted to them as something strange, namely a Goods of God and His Possession, and that they are only servants and householders of it, faithfully to protect and handle it.
True Love
Now, answer yourself: does love demand of a manager that he take some of the goods entrusted to him and sell it, or that he dismiss, or remit, some of the debt to those indebted to his lord? Or that he quietly allow that the treasures of his lord, which he has been committed to watch and to guard, be taken away? Was it love, for example, as that manager, in order to make friends with the debtors of his lord who owed him a hundred tons of oil, said: “Take your bill, sit down, and write quickly ‘50’”? Was that not much rather unfaithfulness, yes, even open deceit and robbery?
Therefore, does not Jesus Himself, even for this reason, call him the “unjust steward” Furthermore, was that true love when the general, to avoid further warfare and fighting, allows only a small opening to be made in the wall of the fortress given over to him for protection against the enemy? Would not such a general be dragged to judgment, and punished as a traitor?
Or, is it love to pilfer from another that which is his, in order to give it to the poor? And lastly, would that have been true love, had Luther silenced the recognized and known truth, when on its account fighting would arise from it? So, judge for yourself, would that also be love when we Lutherans now give up the battle at last, and under the “pretext” that it is only for the true administration of the entrusted pure doctrine for the sake of making them friends of mankind? Or that we value them as charitable and peace-loving people, and so let them proceed?
No, it would not be brotherly love or neighborly love, to say nothing of Godly love ,but self-love; not true management over that which is from God, and entrusted to us only for administration, but vile, outrageous betrayal of another’s goods. Yes, nothing else before God but theft and robbery: robbers shall not inherit eternal life.
True, pure love should be ready for the sake of peace, in such things in which we have the power, to relent, but no in things over which not we, but another, has power to advise. And well should our love be ready, to sacrifice to our neighbor everything that we possess, even our life, where necessary; however, not another’s, but only our own, goods. Therefore, Luther cried out once in the year 1522 against his opponents: “My love is ready to die for you: “My love is ready to die for you; but the faith or the Word you should worship. To our love, ascribe all the fault that you want, but our faith, in all things, you must honor.”
Love Christ’s Word
Oh, my faithful Lutherans, partners in faith, confession, and warfare, so let us not err in these matters, when a person accuses those of lack of love who continue to refuse to give up the battle for the pure doctrine. Consider, this teaching is, as our text states, the faith “which was once delivered to the saints”.
They are not our possessions, over which we have power and freedom of disposition, or retailing them; they are, much rather, God’s possessions, which we have merely to administer. And not only us, but all Christendom; yes, the whole world: to preserve them keep them, and hand them over – undamaged – to posterity. First on that day will God say to us Lutherans in respect to the purity of doctrine of His Word, which was entrusted to us: “Give a reckoning of thy stewardship.”
True, it is a bitter shame to let yourself be considered as a heartless and loveless person; yes, believe it, my beloved, this disgrace will often break the hearts of the contenders fur the purity of God’s Word. However, this disgrace all the contenders have carried time and time again. Therefore, our godly, devout fathers of our church have said in the Confessional Writings of our church: “It is a sad and difficult thing when one separates so many countries and peoples, and would teach a singular doctrine. But here stands God’s command that each person shall watch, guard himself, and not be in unanimity with those who teach a wrong doctrine.’
So let us, then, exhibit our love richly, so that this world sees that in us Lutherans that love nevertheless lives in all earthly or temporal things. In divine matters, however, in the pure doctrine of God’s Word, which was “once delivered to the saints”, let Christ’s declaration be our maxim and guiding star: “He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he that loves son or daughter more that Me is not worthy of Me.”
A United Peace Movement
II
Also, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, the battle concerning the pure doctrine in our church cannot be given up in the second place because the loss of this jewel or treasure would be something more horrible than all the fighting and lack of peace among men.
It is true, my beloved, that the battles and quarreling which are carried on again and again throughout all Christendom, not only between the different church bodies, but also among members of one and the same church, is so great a pity (misery) that it cannot be declared with enough words, and cannot be sufficiently deplored; yes it cannot be bewailed enough with bloody tears.
Is it not a pity that these quarrel with one another who all want to be children of one and the same Heavenly father, servants of one and the same Savior, temples of one and the same Holy Spirit? Is it not a pity that those who are united, joined as one man, should be battling against the countless and mighty enemies of Christendom, unleash their swords against themselves? How must Satan rejoice and shout when he sees this disunity among Christians! How many unbelievers take offense, and therefore have no desire to be a Christian, by which they argue: how can that be the only saving religion, whose confessors (professors), so to say, rend each other to pieces?
And how many weak Christians are thereby misled and fall away to the world again? What about that? Many ask: “Is it not high time that we Lutherans give up once and for all this battle for the purity of doctrine in our church? That we, as Isaiah prophesied, turn our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks? That we conclude a peace treaty with all Christians, and stretch forth the reconciling hand of brotherly love, and join with them in one great united peace movement?”
Certainly, my hearers, could we Lutherans purchase with blood a holy, universal peace treaty, so should no Lutheran, much less any Lutheran pastor, value his blood so highly, but for this cause much rather spill his blood, with exceeding great joy. And yet, my brethren, we cannot give up the battle for the pure doctrine in our church.
We are taught this on all the pages of God’s Word, and we are also taught this out of our text when it states: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation (unser aller Heil), it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.” See there, because the apostle wanted to write to them of the “common salvation”, he therefore held it necessary to admonish them first of all that they should “contend for the faith”. According t this apostle’s definition we are dealing with nothing less than our “common salvation”.
We Cannot give Up the Battle
How, then? May we, can we, now at last give up this battle for the pure Bible doctrine in our church? Nevermore? Yes, if the battle concerns gold and goods, honor before men, good days; briefly, when we battle for earthly, temporal things. Woe is us when we do not ask whether the peace in the world and in the church will be upset, whether the unbeliever and the weak Christian will be offended, whether God’s work will be hindered thereby or not.
But it is another matter when we “contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints”. There, we battle not for earthly, temporal goods but for eternal values; here, we battle not for human but for God’s honor; here, we battle, not for this life, but for eternal life; here, we battle, in the words of our text, for the “common salvation”.
For this cause, all the prophets and apostles, yes, Christ Himself, have already—again and again—battled for the pure faith. Christ testifies explicitly in Matthew 10: “Do not think I am come to send peace on the earth. I am not come to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father; daughter against her mother; and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” The dissension which thereby insures that one contends for the pure faith is, therefore, not an unholy dissension, but a blessed dissension, which Christ Himself does not cause to cease, nor does He forbid it, but rather He is come to send it, and to raise it up, in this world.
If no one should falsify God’s word, then certainly no battle would be necessary; yea, it would be an evil, a horrible sin. However, Flesh, World, and Satan continue to go out, again and again to falsify God’s Word, or the pure doctrine. And never has it been falsified as just now in our time, so that even now millions, by the poison of false teaching, die the eternal death.
Dare we, can we, be silent thereto, just so that the temporal peace is not distributed? Is it more horrible that the temporal peace is taken from man, or is it not much more horrible that the Word of God, which alone is able to save our souls, is pilfered from us? Is this not of more value than the whole world? Does not Christ Himself therefore say; “What shall it profit man, if he shall gain the whole world…” (also, the peace of the entire world) “ . . and lose his own soul?”
Consider the Results
Consider the results, if in the years of the fourth century the doctrine of Christ’s divinity, as it was attacked by Arius, had not been battled by Athanasius, or any one else. Consider the result as in the fifth century, if the doctrine of the conversion of man solely by grace, as it was attacked by Pelagius, had not been battled for by Augustine, or any one else. Consider that result in the 16th century if the whole doctrine of Christ, as was falsified by the papacy, neither Luther nor anyone else had battled against it.
Consider the result if, in the last century, as Rationalism penetrated the Christian church, none had battled against it. Surely, there would have been much less quarreling and disunity in the world, but where would the pure Word of God be now? Where, the Lutheran Church? Where would the correct doctrine of the way to salvation be? All of these would long ago have disappeared forever from the face of the earth, and therewith the salvation and blessedness of uncounted numbers of people would have been lost.
Oh, my faithful, let us mourn and lament, then, over that time and again erring spirits attack the pure doctrine, and thereby are to be blamed for the battle and strife in the church. However, over this let us not lament, but much rather praise and thank God that He awakens men who will battle against the erring spirits for, and I repeat it, “our common salvation” is at stake.
The Battle Must Continue
III
So also, my hearers, the greatest and most uncontestable ground why the battle for the pure doctrine of our church dare not and cannot be surrendered in this; while this battle is one commanded by God, and therefore highly blessed, both in time and in eternity. Allow me, then, to speak to you, in the third place, and grant me your attention for these few moments more.
There are truly in this day, many well-meaning Christians who say: since not all battling for the doctrine is to be cast out—and, true, we must occasionally battle with all our might for the same (it was, for example, perfectly right that Luther for a quarter of a century heroically battled for the true doctrine, as a lion unto the death, against the falsifications of the papacy; for his battle ended in such a result, the like of which the history of the church has never before exhibited or known)—but now it is clearly the time, once and for all, to make an end to the battle for the truth in our church; and instead of fighting one another, we should much rather build together; in place of the word, grab hold of the towel. For what has been the outcome of all this strife in our time? Nothing but greater divisions and confusions.
These preachers of peace, no matter how good their intentions, still are encompassed b a very great error.
The Battle Is Blessed
First of all, is it not true that, in our time, during these more than thirty years of battling for the pure doctrine of our church, we have had only greater divisions and confusions as a result? But much more – to the glory of God alone is it declared—that, as a direct result of these battles, the church of the Reformation has stood up in its shining, golden purity of doctrine; more than a thousand congregations have again shared with us in the old pure confession of our church, and from our America has gone out the sound of the old pure gospel into all lands, and has everywhere gained new professors of the truth and gathered them under the old and good banner of our pious fathers.
And, secondly, thousands upon thousands who were at the point of giving up entirely the old eternal faith have, in the smallest part, come to a standstill on the road of error, a greater part have moved to a return to the way of the truth they neglected. Even the present battle has been richly and gloriously blessed by God above all hope, prayers, and understanding.
Even though this were not so;; and even if it would appear more so, as if at last in our day all battle for the pure doctrine of our church were absolutely unsuccessful and useless, even so still we would not dare to, nor could we, give up at any time this battle. And why? Because the great God in clear words has commanded it. For who is it, who among others, in our text through the apostle Jude summons all the saints; that is, all believing Christians, so earnestly that they “contend for the faith once delivered to the saints?” It is the great God Himself. For, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What more do we need to add? Yes, what man, or what angel, will hazard it, that when God says “contend”, to say “contend not!”
And so when we contend at the command of the great God, dare we then at any time fear that our battle will be useless? Nevermore! What God does, or orders to be done, that cannot be anything else but blessed in time and in eternity. Even so, the wise man, Sirach, also wrote: “Uphold the truth unto the death; so will God, the Lord, fight for you.” (Sirach 4:33).
God Command Us to Contend
Oh, so let us then not listen to those who, although they praise and glorify a former Reformation battle but would have nothing to do with a similar battle in our day. God’s command; “Contend for the faith!” applies to all, even for our day. Let our hearts be kindled by the same fiery zeal with which Luther and his faithful assistants battled. Let us not cowardly and without a fight surrender what they, by hot war, and with word, writing, blood, and tears have conquered and won, but faithfully guard and courageously defend it against all attacks, even unto death. Let us not consider any clearly revealed truth as unimportant, or allow its falsification; for here this applies: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole loaf.” Let us not be bothered if any man, for the sake of our battle, should cast out our names as those most evil. Also Luther and his assistants had to experience this, and now they bring blessings to always more millions, even after they have rested already so long in their graves. Let us prove ourselves even, not as degenerate, but as honorable, true children of the Reformation, so will it also be, that long after we lie – dust by dust—our children and our children’s children shall also bless us.
It is established, my beloved, that our names will remain for he sake of our battles for the pure doctrine of our church, disgraced before men until the judgment day; but then so will lit be when we endure faithfully in the battle, as sure as God is faithful and true, and for the sake of Jesus, the judgment day will be the day of our crowning, and entire eternity shall be our victory and peach festival. Oh, what joy, what glory that will be, when also we, we poor, here despised, rejected, and hated people shall have been taken up into the uncounted multitudes of the holy army of God, from Adam on unto the last of the faithful contenders, who triumph before God’s throne.
So, I call to all of you in closing:
Up, Oh, Christian man; up, to battle; up, up to the conquering! In this world, in this time, there is no rest to be found. Who will not fight, wears not the crown, nor has any part of eternal life. Amen.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
A SKETCH OF DR. WALTHER'S LIFE
A SKETCH OF DR. WALTHER’S LIFE
Christian News, October 24, 2011, Vol. 49, No. 41
On the 200th anniversary of Dr. C.F.W. Walther’s birth on October 25, 1811. Christian News cannot improve on what Dr. John C. Drickamer wrote at the 100th anniversary of Walther’s death in “A Sketch of Dr. Walther’s Life” in the April 20, 1987 Christian News. Dr. Drickamer was a great champion of Dr. Walther. His translation of Walther’s Pastoral Theology was the first English translation of this important work. When CPH did not publish the translation, CN did. CPH still refuses to list this important work of Dr. Walther’s in their catalog. CPH similarly refuses to list Dr. William Beck’s An American Translation of the Bible. Dr. Drickamer is the editor of the fourth edition of the AAT. CPH published Beck’s New Testament in 1963 and said it would follow the request of an LCMS convention which asked CPH to publish Beck’s entire AAT. CPH never did.
Dr. Drickamer wrote in his “A Sketch of Dr. Walther’s Life:”
Dr. C.F.W. Walther was the greatest theologian of the nineteenth century and the founder of the Missouri Synod. He served as pastor, professor, and president. May 7, 1987, will be the one hundredth anniversary of his death. It is time to remember his life on page 9.
His full name was Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther. Some people mistakenly refer to him as “Carl Walther.” His letters to his wife were signed “Ferdinand,” and that was how close relatives addressed him. But in those formal times, friends often referred to each other by family name. Walther’s letters to friends were signed “Walther.” In any formal context, his name was “C.F.W. Walther.”
Walther was born on October 25, 1811, in Langenchursdorf, Saxony, where his father was pastor. He was educated mostly in boarding schools. In 1829 he graduated from the Gymnasium at Schneeberg. The European “Gymnasium” is on a level between our high school and junior college.
Walther studied theology at the University of Leipzig. Nearly all of the professors were rationalists, that is, unbelievers. They tried to follow man’s reason instead of God’s Word. Walther joined a group of students who read Pietistic books and discussed spiritual experiences. Pietism was another form of unbelief. It did not believe that Christ had met the requirements for our salvation. Instead, man had to go through a process of struggle for salvation. But Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Walther came down with a respiratory illness and spent the winter semester, 1831-1832, recuperating at home. During those months he read a great deal in Luther’s works from his father’s library. That was the beginning of his intimate acquaintance with the Reformer’s thought.
Walther finished his university studies in 1833. As was customary, he spent some time serving as a tutor in a private home. In 1837 he became pastor at Braeunsdorf, Saxony.
Martin Stephan, pastor of the Bohemian congregation at Dresden, had been preaching God’s Word, which was rare in Saxony then. On the advice of a friend, Walther wrote to him about spiritual problems. Stephan comforted Walther in a letter about the grace of God. Stephan’s later problems should not cause us to forget that he had long preached the Word of God correctly in spite of government opposition.
Late in 1838 Walther left Germany with a group under the leadership of Martin Stephan. These were the famous “Saxon immigrants,” who were seeking religious freedom. They arrived at New Orleans and headed up the Mississippi to St. Louis early in 1839. In Germany, Missouri was reputed to be a paradise on earth. Some of the immigrants settled in St. Louis, but most of them set up a colony in Perry County, Missouri, about a hundred miles south of St. Louis.
Stephan had been persecuted for preaching God’s Word. But there had also been questions about his personal life. Stephan and some of those loyal to him began to interpret the persecution as personal. The Stephanite movement degenerated largely into a personality cult. Walther was not one of those who followed Stephan blindly.
As his pretensions grew, Stephan had himself declared “bishop” and dominated the group in temporal as well as spiritual matters. But “a man’s pride shall bring him low” (Proverbs 29:23). In May 1839 certain immoral behavior became public knowledge, and the immigrants deposed and expelled him. Walther was a leader in getting rid of Stephan.
Walther and the other immigrants were tried by external hardships and spiritual doubts for the next two years. They feared that their immigration had been schismatic and that they had cut themselves off from the true church and any valid public ministry.
Walther emerged as the theological leader of the Saxons at the Altenburg Debate, April 15 and 21, 1841. (Altenburg was one of the settlements in Perry County.) There Walther explained and defended the principles of the church and the pastoral office which he would defend for the rest of his life. The church is simply Christians, believers in Christ. Where believers were, there was the Office of the Keys (Matthew 18:15-20). The Saxons should repent of anything they had done wrong in connection with the immigration. But they had the right and the responsibility to form congregations and call pastors to administer the Word and the Sacraments publicly.
This event was also typical of Walther’s emphasis on Law and Gospel. One should repent and confess his sins. God brought a person to repentance through the Law. But then one should believe the good news of full and free forgiveness because of the Lamb of God Who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29). God brought a person to faith through the Gospel and the Sacraments. The message of forgiveness also moved a person to forget his own sins and to want to go forward in a life of service to God and their neighbor.
Walther preached and taught Law and Gospel to the end of his life, culminating in The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel (English translation by W.H.T. Dau, CPH, 1928). It was a series of thirty-nine evening lectures for seminary students. The lectures were reconstructed from student notes and published after Walther’s death. This book has been a tremendous blessing to many people. It is full of practical insight on church, ministry, preaching, counseling, and Christian life in general. Its content is supremely comforting and evangelical. No more influential book has ever been written by a Lutheran in America.
Walther had been called to be pastor of the Saxons who had stayed in St Louis. The day after the Altenburg Debate, he left to take up his work in this growing city. Because of state control of churches in Saxony, none of the Saxons had experience in self-governing congregations. Walther led the laymen in writing a constitution and becoming active as they should be in church life.
Walther remained pastor of this congregation to the end of his life. From 1850 he was involved in full time seminary teaching, but he still served part time as pastor. Even synodical administration (he was president 1847-1850 and 1864-1878) did not end that.
In 1844 Walther began to publish Der Lutheraner (“The Lutheran”). It was a congregational periodical, but it also sought a wider audience among confessional Lutherans in North America. Among others, it reached some of the Sendlinge (“missionaries”) who had been sent to America by J.K.W. Loehe of Neuendettelsa, Bavaria. Der Lutheraner was for all Christian readers, not only for pastors.
Der Lutheraner helped in the formation of the Missouri Synod. Contact between confessional Lutherans led to the idea of organizing in a synod to undertake certain kinds of work that could be done better by an association of congregations and pastors than by independent congregations and pastors. Those purposes were missions, publishing, and the education of pastors and teachers.
A constitution was written in 1846 and submitted to interested congregations. The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, was founded in Chicago in April 1847. Walther was the theological leader of the new synod and served as president from 1847 to 1850. His St. Louis congregation had also made quite a contribution to the discussion about the proposed constitution.
Walther and several others had founded a school in Perry County in December 1839. The school was intended to prepare students for university. But in the realities of American life, it became a theological seminary. Some of the early students simply stayed with it that long. The first candidate for the ministry graduated in 1847. Walther was the theological leader of the new synod and served as president from 1847 to 1850. His St. Louis congregation had also made quite a contribution to the discussion about the proposed constitution.
Walther and several others had founded a school in Perry County in December 1839. The school was intended to prepare students for university. But in the realities of American life, it became a theological seminary. Some of the early students simply stayed with it that long. The first candidate for the ministry graduated in 1847.
In 1849 the Perry County congregations decided to donate this school to the synod. It began operations in St. Louis in 1850 with the name Concordia College. Walther was the professor in the seminary division. To devote himself to this work, he was freed from the synodical presidency. The Missouri Synod today should note that administration was not considered the most important work. Walther gave up being president rather than give up being pastor. He later served again as president because he was so highly respected. But he remained a pastor!
From 1850 to the end of his career, Walther’s work with the seminary was his full time occupation. He taught in many different fields, but he is best known for his work in teaching Christian doctrine. He was president of the seminary from 1854, when the position was created. Again, administrative work was a sidelight, not a major preoccupation.
Walther took the initiative in relations with other Lutherans in America. In 1855 he suggested that free conferences of Lutherans be held. “Free” meant that people would attend as individuals, not as representative of any church body. All who held to the Augsburg Confession were welcome. One who does not hold to the basic Lutheran confession is not a Lutheran. But many people then as now claimed the Lutheran name without Lutheran convictions.
Four annual free conferences were held. The plan was to discuss the Augsburg Confession, article by article, confident that doctrinal consensus could be reached or revealed. That was more important than a larger organization. Unity was more important than union. The internal unity of the faith was more highly valued than the outward union of the organization.
The free conferences were interrupted in part by health problems on Walther’s part and in part by the Civil War. They were not resumed after the Civil War because some of those involved went into an organizational union without doctrinal consensus.
That left the truly confessional Lutherans free to find that doctrinal consensus did exist among them. In 1872 the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America was founded. It included, among others, the Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Norwegian Synods. We should not be surprised to learn that Walther was chosen as the first president also of this organization. As a testimony to his pure doctrinal stance, the Ohio Synod’s seminary in Columbus, Ohio, awarded Walther the degree of doctor of divinity in 1878.
The doctrinal consensus was torn apart by the Election Controversy, also known as the Predestinarian Controversy. Walther had been a faithful Lutheran also in the doctrine of predestination or the election of grace. The Biblical, Lutheran doctrine is that God gets all the credit for salvation but that man gets all the blame for damnation. That is an important doctrine for all Christians. We need to be directed constantly to trust God, not ourselves. Christian faith is faith in Christ, not in self. But some people within the Synodical Conference, wanted to teach that man had a determinative role to play in his own salvation.
God says, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help” (Hosea 13:9). Damnation is man’s doing. Salvation is God’s doing. If man is to be to any extent his own savior, he is to that extent his own god. Faith in ourselves is misplaced. Faith in God is what the Bible teaches.
Most American denominations teach that man must do something to save himself. It may be that this works righteousness influenced some men who had formerly been true Lutherans. The leading opponent of the true doctrine in this controversy, F.A. Schmidt, also had a personal grudge against Walther after Schmidt was not chosen for a position on the faculty at St. Louis.
The controversy was very bitter, especially during the early 1880s. It split the Synodical Conference and the Norwegian Synod. A few men switched from the Missouri Synod to the Ohio Synod, but about the same number switched from Ohio to Missouri. But Christ is in control of His kingdom. We do not know why He permitted this false teaching to deceive so many people. It may be that those who left the Synodical Conference had never been truly Lutheran in their hearts in spite of their words. The split left the Synodical Conference weaker in numbers but stronger in faith and conviction by driving men more deeply into Scripture.
In addition to all his work with church, seminary, and synod, Walther was also very active as a writer and editor. Those who think that a faithful pastor or professor does not have time for writing should consider Walther’s career. In addition to the popular weekly, Der Lutheraner, he also edited and contributed to Lehre und Wehre (“Doctrine and Defense”), a theological monthly that was begun in 1855. He produced textbooks for the students at the seminary and books dealing with various controversies, such as those on church and ministry.
Some of Walther’s books consisted largely of quotations from the Bible, the confessions, and the writings of theologians of the past. Walther is criticized for that. But in humility he preferred to let Luther or some other great theologian speak. That was no problem for Walther because his knowledge was so great and because, unlike his critics, he agreed with the Biblical doctrine of Luther and the confessions.
Walther’s ability to express Christian truth in his own words was shown by his many sermons and addresses that were published in the synod’s periodicals. Many of these valuable writings were also collected and published in volumes. Some of Walther’s writings are available in English translation from Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis, Missouri. But many others deserve to be translated and published. They would certainly be a blessing to Lutherans today.
Walther died on May 7, 1887. Every circuit in the Missouri Synod should observe this centennial with a special worship service. The sad fact is that many in our synod no longer support our doctrinal heritage, which is best exemplified by Dr. Walther. May God lead those opponents of the truth to true repentance. May God make all of us truly grateful for the wonderful gift He gave to His people in the faithful pastor and teacher, Dr. C.F.W. Walther.
Christian News, October 24, 2011, Vol. 49, No. 41
On the 200th anniversary of Dr. C.F.W. Walther’s birth on October 25, 1811. Christian News cannot improve on what Dr. John C. Drickamer wrote at the 100th anniversary of Walther’s death in “A Sketch of Dr. Walther’s Life” in the April 20, 1987 Christian News. Dr. Drickamer was a great champion of Dr. Walther. His translation of Walther’s Pastoral Theology was the first English translation of this important work. When CPH did not publish the translation, CN did. CPH still refuses to list this important work of Dr. Walther’s in their catalog. CPH similarly refuses to list Dr. William Beck’s An American Translation of the Bible. Dr. Drickamer is the editor of the fourth edition of the AAT. CPH published Beck’s New Testament in 1963 and said it would follow the request of an LCMS convention which asked CPH to publish Beck’s entire AAT. CPH never did.
Dr. Drickamer wrote in his “A Sketch of Dr. Walther’s Life:”
Dr. C.F.W. Walther was the greatest theologian of the nineteenth century and the founder of the Missouri Synod. He served as pastor, professor, and president. May 7, 1987, will be the one hundredth anniversary of his death. It is time to remember his life on page 9.
His full name was Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther. Some people mistakenly refer to him as “Carl Walther.” His letters to his wife were signed “Ferdinand,” and that was how close relatives addressed him. But in those formal times, friends often referred to each other by family name. Walther’s letters to friends were signed “Walther.” In any formal context, his name was “C.F.W. Walther.”
Walther was born on October 25, 1811, in Langenchursdorf, Saxony, where his father was pastor. He was educated mostly in boarding schools. In 1829 he graduated from the Gymnasium at Schneeberg. The European “Gymnasium” is on a level between our high school and junior college.
Walther studied theology at the University of Leipzig. Nearly all of the professors were rationalists, that is, unbelievers. They tried to follow man’s reason instead of God’s Word. Walther joined a group of students who read Pietistic books and discussed spiritual experiences. Pietism was another form of unbelief. It did not believe that Christ had met the requirements for our salvation. Instead, man had to go through a process of struggle for salvation. But Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Walther came down with a respiratory illness and spent the winter semester, 1831-1832, recuperating at home. During those months he read a great deal in Luther’s works from his father’s library. That was the beginning of his intimate acquaintance with the Reformer’s thought.
Walther finished his university studies in 1833. As was customary, he spent some time serving as a tutor in a private home. In 1837 he became pastor at Braeunsdorf, Saxony.
Martin Stephan, pastor of the Bohemian congregation at Dresden, had been preaching God’s Word, which was rare in Saxony then. On the advice of a friend, Walther wrote to him about spiritual problems. Stephan comforted Walther in a letter about the grace of God. Stephan’s later problems should not cause us to forget that he had long preached the Word of God correctly in spite of government opposition.
Late in 1838 Walther left Germany with a group under the leadership of Martin Stephan. These were the famous “Saxon immigrants,” who were seeking religious freedom. They arrived at New Orleans and headed up the Mississippi to St. Louis early in 1839. In Germany, Missouri was reputed to be a paradise on earth. Some of the immigrants settled in St. Louis, but most of them set up a colony in Perry County, Missouri, about a hundred miles south of St. Louis.
Stephan had been persecuted for preaching God’s Word. But there had also been questions about his personal life. Stephan and some of those loyal to him began to interpret the persecution as personal. The Stephanite movement degenerated largely into a personality cult. Walther was not one of those who followed Stephan blindly.
As his pretensions grew, Stephan had himself declared “bishop” and dominated the group in temporal as well as spiritual matters. But “a man’s pride shall bring him low” (Proverbs 29:23). In May 1839 certain immoral behavior became public knowledge, and the immigrants deposed and expelled him. Walther was a leader in getting rid of Stephan.
Walther and the other immigrants were tried by external hardships and spiritual doubts for the next two years. They feared that their immigration had been schismatic and that they had cut themselves off from the true church and any valid public ministry.
Walther emerged as the theological leader of the Saxons at the Altenburg Debate, April 15 and 21, 1841. (Altenburg was one of the settlements in Perry County.) There Walther explained and defended the principles of the church and the pastoral office which he would defend for the rest of his life. The church is simply Christians, believers in Christ. Where believers were, there was the Office of the Keys (Matthew 18:15-20). The Saxons should repent of anything they had done wrong in connection with the immigration. But they had the right and the responsibility to form congregations and call pastors to administer the Word and the Sacraments publicly.
This event was also typical of Walther’s emphasis on Law and Gospel. One should repent and confess his sins. God brought a person to repentance through the Law. But then one should believe the good news of full and free forgiveness because of the Lamb of God Who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29). God brought a person to faith through the Gospel and the Sacraments. The message of forgiveness also moved a person to forget his own sins and to want to go forward in a life of service to God and their neighbor.
Walther preached and taught Law and Gospel to the end of his life, culminating in The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel (English translation by W.H.T. Dau, CPH, 1928). It was a series of thirty-nine evening lectures for seminary students. The lectures were reconstructed from student notes and published after Walther’s death. This book has been a tremendous blessing to many people. It is full of practical insight on church, ministry, preaching, counseling, and Christian life in general. Its content is supremely comforting and evangelical. No more influential book has ever been written by a Lutheran in America.
Walther had been called to be pastor of the Saxons who had stayed in St Louis. The day after the Altenburg Debate, he left to take up his work in this growing city. Because of state control of churches in Saxony, none of the Saxons had experience in self-governing congregations. Walther led the laymen in writing a constitution and becoming active as they should be in church life.
Walther remained pastor of this congregation to the end of his life. From 1850 he was involved in full time seminary teaching, but he still served part time as pastor. Even synodical administration (he was president 1847-1850 and 1864-1878) did not end that.
In 1844 Walther began to publish Der Lutheraner (“The Lutheran”). It was a congregational periodical, but it also sought a wider audience among confessional Lutherans in North America. Among others, it reached some of the Sendlinge (“missionaries”) who had been sent to America by J.K.W. Loehe of Neuendettelsa, Bavaria. Der Lutheraner was for all Christian readers, not only for pastors.
Der Lutheraner helped in the formation of the Missouri Synod. Contact between confessional Lutherans led to the idea of organizing in a synod to undertake certain kinds of work that could be done better by an association of congregations and pastors than by independent congregations and pastors. Those purposes were missions, publishing, and the education of pastors and teachers.
A constitution was written in 1846 and submitted to interested congregations. The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, was founded in Chicago in April 1847. Walther was the theological leader of the new synod and served as president from 1847 to 1850. His St. Louis congregation had also made quite a contribution to the discussion about the proposed constitution.
Walther and several others had founded a school in Perry County in December 1839. The school was intended to prepare students for university. But in the realities of American life, it became a theological seminary. Some of the early students simply stayed with it that long. The first candidate for the ministry graduated in 1847. Walther was the theological leader of the new synod and served as president from 1847 to 1850. His St. Louis congregation had also made quite a contribution to the discussion about the proposed constitution.
Walther and several others had founded a school in Perry County in December 1839. The school was intended to prepare students for university. But in the realities of American life, it became a theological seminary. Some of the early students simply stayed with it that long. The first candidate for the ministry graduated in 1847.
In 1849 the Perry County congregations decided to donate this school to the synod. It began operations in St. Louis in 1850 with the name Concordia College. Walther was the professor in the seminary division. To devote himself to this work, he was freed from the synodical presidency. The Missouri Synod today should note that administration was not considered the most important work. Walther gave up being president rather than give up being pastor. He later served again as president because he was so highly respected. But he remained a pastor!
From 1850 to the end of his career, Walther’s work with the seminary was his full time occupation. He taught in many different fields, but he is best known for his work in teaching Christian doctrine. He was president of the seminary from 1854, when the position was created. Again, administrative work was a sidelight, not a major preoccupation.
Walther took the initiative in relations with other Lutherans in America. In 1855 he suggested that free conferences of Lutherans be held. “Free” meant that people would attend as individuals, not as representative of any church body. All who held to the Augsburg Confession were welcome. One who does not hold to the basic Lutheran confession is not a Lutheran. But many people then as now claimed the Lutheran name without Lutheran convictions.
Four annual free conferences were held. The plan was to discuss the Augsburg Confession, article by article, confident that doctrinal consensus could be reached or revealed. That was more important than a larger organization. Unity was more important than union. The internal unity of the faith was more highly valued than the outward union of the organization.
The free conferences were interrupted in part by health problems on Walther’s part and in part by the Civil War. They were not resumed after the Civil War because some of those involved went into an organizational union without doctrinal consensus.
That left the truly confessional Lutherans free to find that doctrinal consensus did exist among them. In 1872 the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America was founded. It included, among others, the Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Norwegian Synods. We should not be surprised to learn that Walther was chosen as the first president also of this organization. As a testimony to his pure doctrinal stance, the Ohio Synod’s seminary in Columbus, Ohio, awarded Walther the degree of doctor of divinity in 1878.
The doctrinal consensus was torn apart by the Election Controversy, also known as the Predestinarian Controversy. Walther had been a faithful Lutheran also in the doctrine of predestination or the election of grace. The Biblical, Lutheran doctrine is that God gets all the credit for salvation but that man gets all the blame for damnation. That is an important doctrine for all Christians. We need to be directed constantly to trust God, not ourselves. Christian faith is faith in Christ, not in self. But some people within the Synodical Conference, wanted to teach that man had a determinative role to play in his own salvation.
God says, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help” (Hosea 13:9). Damnation is man’s doing. Salvation is God’s doing. If man is to be to any extent his own savior, he is to that extent his own god. Faith in ourselves is misplaced. Faith in God is what the Bible teaches.
Most American denominations teach that man must do something to save himself. It may be that this works righteousness influenced some men who had formerly been true Lutherans. The leading opponent of the true doctrine in this controversy, F.A. Schmidt, also had a personal grudge against Walther after Schmidt was not chosen for a position on the faculty at St. Louis.
The controversy was very bitter, especially during the early 1880s. It split the Synodical Conference and the Norwegian Synod. A few men switched from the Missouri Synod to the Ohio Synod, but about the same number switched from Ohio to Missouri. But Christ is in control of His kingdom. We do not know why He permitted this false teaching to deceive so many people. It may be that those who left the Synodical Conference had never been truly Lutheran in their hearts in spite of their words. The split left the Synodical Conference weaker in numbers but stronger in faith and conviction by driving men more deeply into Scripture.
In addition to all his work with church, seminary, and synod, Walther was also very active as a writer and editor. Those who think that a faithful pastor or professor does not have time for writing should consider Walther’s career. In addition to the popular weekly, Der Lutheraner, he also edited and contributed to Lehre und Wehre (“Doctrine and Defense”), a theological monthly that was begun in 1855. He produced textbooks for the students at the seminary and books dealing with various controversies, such as those on church and ministry.
Some of Walther’s books consisted largely of quotations from the Bible, the confessions, and the writings of theologians of the past. Walther is criticized for that. But in humility he preferred to let Luther or some other great theologian speak. That was no problem for Walther because his knowledge was so great and because, unlike his critics, he agreed with the Biblical doctrine of Luther and the confessions.
Walther’s ability to express Christian truth in his own words was shown by his many sermons and addresses that were published in the synod’s periodicals. Many of these valuable writings were also collected and published in volumes. Some of Walther’s writings are available in English translation from Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis, Missouri. But many others deserve to be translated and published. They would certainly be a blessing to Lutherans today.
Walther died on May 7, 1887. Every circuit in the Missouri Synod should observe this centennial with a special worship service. The sad fact is that many in our synod no longer support our doctrinal heritage, which is best exemplified by Dr. Walther. May God lead those opponents of the truth to true repentance. May God make all of us truly grateful for the wonderful gift He gave to His people in the faithful pastor and teacher, Dr. C.F.W. Walther.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Walther: 200 Years After His Birth - WHAT WOULD HE SAY AND DO TODAY?
Walther: 200 Years After His Birth - WHAT WOULD HE SAY AND DO TODAY?
Christian News, October 17, 2011, Vol. 49, No. 40
Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther, “The Greatest American Theologian” (CN, October 10, 2011), was born October 25, 1811. “Walther,” a 4 disc DVD set sent to the congregations of the LCMS was featured on page one of last week’s Christian News. CN wishes every member of the LCMS would at least watch the movie. Nothing is said about what Walther would do or say today if he were a member of the LCMS.
This issue includes the section on Walther in the Concordia Cyclopedia published by CPH in 1927.
While the 200th anniversary of Walther’s birth is now being commemorated in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, has his theology become a forgotten relic rather than a lived reality?
If Walther were living today, would he remain with the LCMS, a denomination which includes more than a thousand pastors who support the ordination of women, allows on its clergy roster those who promote evolution and deny the inerrancy of the Bible, and whose leaders at its seminaries and publishing house praise Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a liberal theologian who denied the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the greatest Lutheran theologian since Martin Luther?
Today the LCMS allows its leaders to maintain that the Muslim god is also the true God.
This issue of CN includes the editor’s conclusion of his book Baal or God published in 1965, p. 4. The editor quoted what Walther told the First Convention of the synod’s Iowa District in 1879 and recommended “Separate from your denomination when it no longer preaches God’s Word and when it tolerates the anti-Christian views of modern liberalism.”
Last week CN reported that the 2011 Walther Conference scheduled to be held at Concordia Seminary on November 11 and 12 has been cancelled. The editor was scheduled to speak at the conference on “What Would Walther Do or Say Today.” “What About Doctrinal Discipline? ̶ If WALTHER WERE PRESIDENT OF THE LCMS TODAY?” was the title of the editors essay at the First National Walther Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, November 5 and 6, 1998.
On March 18, 2011 the editor sent a tentative outline of the speech he intended to present at Concordia Seminary to LCMS President Matthew Harrison, Concordia Seminary President, Dale Meyer, LCMS Missouri District President, Ray Mirly, CTCR Executive Joel Lehenbauer, the president of the LCMS Concordia University System, and the president of CPH. None of the LCMS leaders said they would be able to serve on the panel responding to CN. They were also not able to send a representative to serve on the panel.
The outline CN sent to the LCMS leaders and letter of March 18 follow:
Tentative Outline
1. Support a Twenty-first Century Reformation and Formula of Concord, which reaffirms the Book of Concord of 1580 but speaks to the issues of our day: evolution, higher criticism of the Bible, abortion, homosexuality, communism, and socialism, etc. Expose the anti-scriptural theology now tolerated in all the major denominations.
2. Stop the “Dying of the Light” in the Concordia University System as exposed in The Dying of the Light – The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches by James Burtschaell and in The Christian News Encyclopedia and the volumes of Christian News.
3. Call for the highest academic standards and the careful study of solid evidence in all areas.
4. Defend the inerrancy of the Bible and oppose such destructive notions of the Bible as the J-E-D-P source hypothesis, the Deutero-Isaiah theory, 160 B.C dating of Daniel and the translation of “young woman” rather than “virgin” for almah in Isaiah 7:14.
5. Support free speech and debates including a debate between those at CPH and in the CUS and LCMS seminaries who insist that the RSV and the ESV are accurate and reliable translations and those who claim that the RSV and ESV, which is 91% RSV, undermine basic doctrines of God’s Word, direct rectilinear messianic prophecy, and change the Bible text in more than 1,000 passages.
For entire article see Vol. 49, No. 40, Christian News, October 17, 2011.
Christian News, October 17, 2011, Vol. 49, No. 40
Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther, “The Greatest American Theologian” (CN, October 10, 2011), was born October 25, 1811. “Walther,” a 4 disc DVD set sent to the congregations of the LCMS was featured on page one of last week’s Christian News. CN wishes every member of the LCMS would at least watch the movie. Nothing is said about what Walther would do or say today if he were a member of the LCMS.
This issue includes the section on Walther in the Concordia Cyclopedia published by CPH in 1927.
While the 200th anniversary of Walther’s birth is now being commemorated in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, has his theology become a forgotten relic rather than a lived reality?
If Walther were living today, would he remain with the LCMS, a denomination which includes more than a thousand pastors who support the ordination of women, allows on its clergy roster those who promote evolution and deny the inerrancy of the Bible, and whose leaders at its seminaries and publishing house praise Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a liberal theologian who denied the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the greatest Lutheran theologian since Martin Luther?
Today the LCMS allows its leaders to maintain that the Muslim god is also the true God.
This issue of CN includes the editor’s conclusion of his book Baal or God published in 1965, p. 4. The editor quoted what Walther told the First Convention of the synod’s Iowa District in 1879 and recommended “Separate from your denomination when it no longer preaches God’s Word and when it tolerates the anti-Christian views of modern liberalism.”
Last week CN reported that the 2011 Walther Conference scheduled to be held at Concordia Seminary on November 11 and 12 has been cancelled. The editor was scheduled to speak at the conference on “What Would Walther Do or Say Today.” “What About Doctrinal Discipline? ̶ If WALTHER WERE PRESIDENT OF THE LCMS TODAY?” was the title of the editors essay at the First National Walther Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, November 5 and 6, 1998.
On March 18, 2011 the editor sent a tentative outline of the speech he intended to present at Concordia Seminary to LCMS President Matthew Harrison, Concordia Seminary President, Dale Meyer, LCMS Missouri District President, Ray Mirly, CTCR Executive Joel Lehenbauer, the president of the LCMS Concordia University System, and the president of CPH. None of the LCMS leaders said they would be able to serve on the panel responding to CN. They were also not able to send a representative to serve on the panel.
The outline CN sent to the LCMS leaders and letter of March 18 follow:
Tentative Outline
1. Support a Twenty-first Century Reformation and Formula of Concord, which reaffirms the Book of Concord of 1580 but speaks to the issues of our day: evolution, higher criticism of the Bible, abortion, homosexuality, communism, and socialism, etc. Expose the anti-scriptural theology now tolerated in all the major denominations.
2. Stop the “Dying of the Light” in the Concordia University System as exposed in The Dying of the Light – The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches by James Burtschaell and in The Christian News Encyclopedia and the volumes of Christian News.
3. Call for the highest academic standards and the careful study of solid evidence in all areas.
4. Defend the inerrancy of the Bible and oppose such destructive notions of the Bible as the J-E-D-P source hypothesis, the Deutero-Isaiah theory, 160 B.C dating of Daniel and the translation of “young woman” rather than “virgin” for almah in Isaiah 7:14.
5. Support free speech and debates including a debate between those at CPH and in the CUS and LCMS seminaries who insist that the RSV and the ESV are accurate and reliable translations and those who claim that the RSV and ESV, which is 91% RSV, undermine basic doctrines of God’s Word, direct rectilinear messianic prophecy, and change the Bible text in more than 1,000 passages.
For entire article see Vol. 49, No. 40, Christian News, October 17, 2011.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
MARQUART: ST. LOUIS SEMINARY LOST CASE VS OTTEN
LCMS’ COP, Administration, Special Presidential Committee, And Seminary All Disagree With Ft. Wayne Professor:
MARQUART: ST. LOUIS SEMINARY LOST CASE VS OTTEN
Christian News, October 10, 2011
Those who claim the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Mis-souri and editor of Christian News is an impenitent sinner on the road to hell all disagree with Dr. Kurt Marquart who insisted that Herman Otten won the Seminary vs. Otten case. Among those who disagreed with Marquart are LCMS presidents Harms, Jacob Preus, Ralph Bohlmann, A.L. Barry and his assistant, Paul McCain, Jerry Kieschnick, and Matthew Harrison. During the last 50 years hardly any member of the LCMS’ Council of Presidents has agreed with Marquart.
Very few have ever read the 1,050 page transcript of the Seminary vs. Otten case in the files of Concordia Historical Institute and the research center of Christian News. Dr. Martin Noland, former director of the Concordia Historical Institute said after he read the transcript that Marquart’s defense “completely exonerated” Otten. (“Marquart’s Defense Exonerated Otten,” CN, January 18, 2010). “Kurt Marquart – God’s Chosen Instrument In the Church – Missouri Synod’s Great Battle for the Bible” (CN, January 18, 2010), noted that the LCMS’ Concordia Publishing House would never publish a biography of Kurt Marquart, nor would the Schwan Foundation finance it if it mentioned Marquart’s association and defense of Otten. When CPH published two volumes on the works of Herman Sasse, edited by Matthew Harrison, it did not mention that Sasse defended Otten or that some of Sasse’s articles were published in Christian News.
So far the only publication which includes a biography of Marquart, testimonials about him, and a long list of many of his writings is CN’s “Marquart’s Legacy – The International Luther” available from Christian News for $5.00.
A 41ft. 21st Century Reformation Cross at Camp Trinity, New Haven, Missouri dedicated in memory of Dr. Marquart, who promoted a 20th Century Formula of Concord, will be dedicated during a Reformation service at the Missouri District’s Washington Circuit on October 30 at 3 p.m. Chaplain Brandt Klawitter, a great admirer of Marquart, will preach.
James C. Burkee, in his Fortress Press published Power, Politics and the Missouri Synod – A Conflict That Changed American Christianity has this caption of a photo of a young Marquart in his book: “Kurt E. Marquart, long time Otten friend and ally. Marquart constantly advocated for the ‘regularization’ of Otten’s clerical status, which he considered key to ‘pacification’ in the church.”
If Concordia Seminary, the leaders of the LCMS, and the LCMS COP had accepted the final ruling of the LCMS’ Board of Appeals, the case, which led to the latest suspension of Trinity, New Haven, Missouri would never have happened. The COP ruling vs. Otten’s congregation led to the ruling that Otten is an impenitent sinner on the road to hell (CN, October 3, 2011).
---------------------
Professor Kurt Marquart of Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne, told a Special Presidential committee asked to deal with Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, vs. Herman Otten case that the seminary failed to show just cause for refusing to certify Otten for the ministry. The committee was formed in response to a resolution adopted at the LCMS’ 1995 convention.
Many regard Marquart as one of the leading theologians in the U.S. The Board of Appeals of the Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod ordered the St. Louis Seminary to show cause for refusing to certify Otten.
Marquart told the committee: “The case ended in a 5-5 tie or non decision. Anywhere else but in the Soviet Union and in other dark corners of unchallenged bureaucratic arrogance, it would have been self-evident that the seminary had failed to show cause.”
When Otten asked Dr. James Kalthoff why the Special Presidential committee took issue with Marquart’s statement, he said the he could not answer any questions about the committee’s report. Marquart was a counselor for Otten in the case. They had been roommates at the St. Louis Seminary. Dr. Siegbert Becker, a professor at Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, and Rev. H.W. Niewald, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, New Haven, were Otten’s other counselors.
The Special Presidential Committee said in its 41-page report published in the March 3, 1997 issue of CN, that the meaning of the 5-5 ruling has not been clarified even though the LCMS’ Commission on Appeals ruled in 1984 that the 5-5 ruling meant that the seminary failed to show cause and that Otten was the prevailing party. The LCMS’ Handbook says that such rulings are binding. The Special Presidential Committee faults Otten for failing to ask for a rehearing. Otten and his counselors did not ask for any rehearing because they accepted the ruling of the Board of Appeals. Why should the winner ask for a rehearing? Members of the committee were James Kalthoff, Wallace Schulz, David Mueller, Doris Christopher, and Patrick Stacher. Kalthoff later suspended Otten’s congregation from the LCMS. . . . .
MARQUART: ST. LOUIS SEMINARY LOST CASE VS OTTEN
Christian News, October 10, 2011
Those who claim the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Mis-souri and editor of Christian News is an impenitent sinner on the road to hell all disagree with Dr. Kurt Marquart who insisted that Herman Otten won the Seminary vs. Otten case. Among those who disagreed with Marquart are LCMS presidents Harms, Jacob Preus, Ralph Bohlmann, A.L. Barry and his assistant, Paul McCain, Jerry Kieschnick, and Matthew Harrison. During the last 50 years hardly any member of the LCMS’ Council of Presidents has agreed with Marquart.
Very few have ever read the 1,050 page transcript of the Seminary vs. Otten case in the files of Concordia Historical Institute and the research center of Christian News. Dr. Martin Noland, former director of the Concordia Historical Institute said after he read the transcript that Marquart’s defense “completely exonerated” Otten. (“Marquart’s Defense Exonerated Otten,” CN, January 18, 2010). “Kurt Marquart – God’s Chosen Instrument In the Church – Missouri Synod’s Great Battle for the Bible” (CN, January 18, 2010), noted that the LCMS’ Concordia Publishing House would never publish a biography of Kurt Marquart, nor would the Schwan Foundation finance it if it mentioned Marquart’s association and defense of Otten. When CPH published two volumes on the works of Herman Sasse, edited by Matthew Harrison, it did not mention that Sasse defended Otten or that some of Sasse’s articles were published in Christian News.
So far the only publication which includes a biography of Marquart, testimonials about him, and a long list of many of his writings is CN’s “Marquart’s Legacy – The International Luther” available from Christian News for $5.00.
A 41ft. 21st Century Reformation Cross at Camp Trinity, New Haven, Missouri dedicated in memory of Dr. Marquart, who promoted a 20th Century Formula of Concord, will be dedicated during a Reformation service at the Missouri District’s Washington Circuit on October 30 at 3 p.m. Chaplain Brandt Klawitter, a great admirer of Marquart, will preach.
James C. Burkee, in his Fortress Press published Power, Politics and the Missouri Synod – A Conflict That Changed American Christianity has this caption of a photo of a young Marquart in his book: “Kurt E. Marquart, long time Otten friend and ally. Marquart constantly advocated for the ‘regularization’ of Otten’s clerical status, which he considered key to ‘pacification’ in the church.”
If Concordia Seminary, the leaders of the LCMS, and the LCMS COP had accepted the final ruling of the LCMS’ Board of Appeals, the case, which led to the latest suspension of Trinity, New Haven, Missouri would never have happened. The COP ruling vs. Otten’s congregation led to the ruling that Otten is an impenitent sinner on the road to hell (CN, October 3, 2011).
---------------------
Professor Kurt Marquart of Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne, told a Special Presidential committee asked to deal with Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, vs. Herman Otten case that the seminary failed to show just cause for refusing to certify Otten for the ministry. The committee was formed in response to a resolution adopted at the LCMS’ 1995 convention.
Many regard Marquart as one of the leading theologians in the U.S. The Board of Appeals of the Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod ordered the St. Louis Seminary to show cause for refusing to certify Otten.
Marquart told the committee: “The case ended in a 5-5 tie or non decision. Anywhere else but in the Soviet Union and in other dark corners of unchallenged bureaucratic arrogance, it would have been self-evident that the seminary had failed to show cause.”
When Otten asked Dr. James Kalthoff why the Special Presidential committee took issue with Marquart’s statement, he said the he could not answer any questions about the committee’s report. Marquart was a counselor for Otten in the case. They had been roommates at the St. Louis Seminary. Dr. Siegbert Becker, a professor at Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, and Rev. H.W. Niewald, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, New Haven, were Otten’s other counselors.
The Special Presidential Committee said in its 41-page report published in the March 3, 1997 issue of CN, that the meaning of the 5-5 ruling has not been clarified even though the LCMS’ Commission on Appeals ruled in 1984 that the 5-5 ruling meant that the seminary failed to show cause and that Otten was the prevailing party. The LCMS’ Handbook says that such rulings are binding. The Special Presidential Committee faults Otten for failing to ask for a rehearing. Otten and his counselors did not ask for any rehearing because they accepted the ruling of the Board of Appeals. Why should the winner ask for a rehearing? Members of the committee were James Kalthoff, Wallace Schulz, David Mueller, Doris Christopher, and Patrick Stacher. Kalthoff later suspended Otten’s congregation from the LCMS. . . . .
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