My farewell letter to the LCMS

[2023-09-09: added hyperlink in red]

Back in 1998, I composed this farewell letter to the LCMS, my old church body. After God had re-awakened the truth of his Word, the truth and beauty of the true Gospel, I began to devour all writings of Christianity.  But the more I read, the more I realized the true fountain of Christian doctrine flowed from the old German Missouri Synod.  Here is my letter which makes use of Luther's writings against the Church of Rome, and Erasmus:

“Farewell, unhappy, hopeless, blasphemous Rome (today’s LC-MS)! The wrath of God hath come upon thee, as thou hast deserved.  We have cared for Babylon, and she is not healed.  Let us, then, leave her, that she may be the habitation of dragons, specters, and witches and, true to her name Babel, an everlasting confusion, a new pantheon of wickedness.” [St. L. v. 18, 426-427]

Hear and listen! today’s LC-MS! See where you are now! For you give God the lie! Would to God I could locate and burn all your blasphemous doubtings and disputations against God’s Word and His Grace!

Luther on Erasmus: (A Life Of Luther, Fortress Press, 1966, Oskar Thulin, pg 50) [2024-10-08: updated link]
“It is true that he uses refined words, like ‘the dear, holy Christ,’ ‘the saving Word’, ‘the holy sacraments’, but in reality he considers them to be very cold matters.
… Carefully and intentionally he says everything in a tone of doubt; his words are ambiguous and he can interpret them as is expedient to him.
… Erasmus of Rotterdam looks upon the Christian religion and doctrine as if they were a comedy or a tragedy, in which all the events described therein never actually happened or really took place, but were fabricated with the sole purpose of instructing the people in a good external conduct and life and preparing them for worthy obedience and discipline.” (WA,TR 2, 2420; TR 1, 699, 797; TR 2, 2170 [2023-09-09: StL 22, 1082, #126])

Hear, today’s LC-MS. This is you! The judgment for you is the same as for Erasmus!

Bold?  Yes.  But I was angry that today's modern LCMS can trample on it's heritage of pure Christian doctrine so flippantly.
I date the downfall of the old Missouri to the day that Franz Pieper died in 1931, although Professors Theodore Engelder and J.T. Mueller continued for awhile.