The birth certificate of today's LC-MS.

I have identified in several previous posts (e.g. "Graebner Synod" here) the primary statement that showed that the LC-MS was NOT the old (German) Missouri Synod, but rather had become the new (English) LC-MS. (Search my blog with the phrase "hiding a denial of objective justification").

Prof. Theo. Graebner

The quote is from Prof. Theodore Graebner in his article "Lutheran Union – A Plea for Sanity and Charity" in the December 1939 issue of the magazine American Lutheran, pages 7 - 9.

Now I have obtained a copy of that article and want to rub it in the nose of today's LC-MS.  Here is a copy of this 3-page article with the offending quote highlighted:

"Lutheran Union – A Plea for Sanity and Charity", by Theodore Graebner, American Lutheran, Dec. 1939.

A PDF scan file with perhaps a better view of this article is available with this download:

• GraebnerT-Lutheran Union, Plea for Sanity and Charity (American Lutheran, Dec 1939).PDF (1 MB) (PNG image)

I caught my breath when I read the highlighted statement of Graebner:

One of the statements in the A.L.C. declaration has been criticized as hiding a denial of objective justification – when this doctrine is accepted by the American Lutheran Church (because it has accepted our Brief Statement) and when both Ohio and Iowa Synods for generations past have taught correctly this same doctrine.  As long ago as 1872 and as recently as 1938 the public doctrine in the areas here placed under suspicion has been the plain doctrine of Scripture as we teach it ourselves.

I could hardly believe that he would say such a thing.  How could Theodore Graebner, who worked so closely with Franz Pieper, so completely undermine the core teaching that Walther and Pieper had uncovered again from the Lutheran Reformation – the Gospel?  The reader can compare this statement with my recent 10-part series "Walther as Theologian – Justification".  And it was especially the 1872 essay written by Walther on Justification [SCR1872S.PDF] that clearly distinguished the Synodical Conference from the Ohio and Iowa synods.

When I found this article, I made a copy of it and wrote the following in the margin above the highlighted text:

Pay dirt!! ... black is still black and white is still white!... the Missouri Synod should have disciplined him immediately!

Why was I so vehement in my remarks?  It is because I had the definitive evidence in "black and white" – that the LC-MS had changed in its core teaching, in spite of its claims that it had not.  And though my writing might indicate that I was happy to find this quote, yet the reality was that I was horrified...  that the sweet message of the Gospel that Walther had so wonderfully brought to light, the "luminous rays of the Gospel" that he had gathered... were being snuffed out.  But at least I knew why today's LC-MS is so tongue-tied on the Doctrine of Justification.

God have mercy on us!  We are a stiff-necked and stubborn generation!  Lord – send teachers as Walther and Pieper to again teach as they did, from 1872 until the day they died...  The American Luther and The Twentieth Century Luther.

This article by Theodore Graebner is the charter, the Magna Carta, the constitution, the manifesto, the...

... birth certificate of today's heterodox LC-MS – December, 1939.