Walther as Theologian – Part 10: Justification (Heart of the Reformation & Synodical Conference)

Continued from Part 9.  Table of Contents will be in Part 1 when all installments are finished.
These 2 installments were originally posted earlier this year on my blog with copious comments interspersed.  And so I refer to those posts for my comments, except these...

1. To all the LC-MS writers today at Concordia Publishing House, Concordia Historical Institute, President Harrison, etc who write about the "Saxon immigrants" of the Old Missouri —  How is it that you pass over or miss the subject of this installment, Walther's Doctrine of Justification?
2. To all the various Lutheran synods who say their primary difference from other Lutheran synods is their Doctrine of Church and Ministry, I say with Pieper:

"But ... we must above all else discuss his [Walther's] position on the doctrine of justification."

And so to that end, to assist all Lutherans in the whole world, I present this installment, that all Lutherans in the whole world may get back to the heart of the Reformation... and get that right first!

Highlighting is my own.  Underlining is in original.

Hyperlinks within this document should be opened in a new tab (or window).

One quote from the above installment:

Through the preaching of this doctrine the Reformation of the Church was brought about, while all means which had previously been tried for the renovation of the Church had failed.

     I am combining in this post with the next installment, which begins Pieper's 3-part sub-section on the fundamental aspects of a true Doctrine of Justification: (1) Universality, (2) Means of Grace, and (3) Faith.  I call this installment "Justification–Universal".
     Many of Pieper's references are quotes from synodical essays that are not available yet on Google Books.  So my hyperlinks for these (for now) are links to scanned images of the pages or groups of pages mentioned... except one – see below.


Because of the importance of one particular reference, I am including the entire German text of the First Report of the Synodical Conference 1872 – all 49 pages.  This will make it easier to cross-check the references in the above installments to the original text.  Original pagination has been preserved so the page numbers that Pieper refers to correspond to this text presentation.

First Report of the Synodical Conference 1872

Written by C.F.W. Walther.

If there any Lutheran groups who have separated themselves from the original members of the Synodical Conference and who still primarily and publicly proclaim and defend the true Doctrine of Justification (i.e. UOJ), I am interested to know more about them.

The next post Part 11 is the 2nd sub-heading of "Justification" in Pieper's arrangement: Justification–Means of Grace. (Part 12 will be the third and last: "Justification–Faith".)