Walther as Theologian – Part 3: Inspiration & Open Questions

Continued from Part 2.  Table of Contents in Part 1.
Dear God!... there are too many quotations in these essays to highlight!  How precious Thy Word is to the True Church!

Pieper points out that Walther was well known among German theologians such as Otto Zöckler.  Indeed, Zöckler says the following in his book Handbuch der theologischen Wissenschaften in enzyklopädischer Darstellung, 1889 (Google translated, page 146):

...the trend-setting North American theologian of the Missouri Synod, Walther

Unfortunately Zöckler's label of "trend-setting" was in error.  Walther was not "trend-setting", rather he went back to Luther, went back to the teaching of the true Christian church, went back to the teaching of Scripture itself.

Greek and Hebrew words have not been rendered, but are displayed as ????s (question marks).  

These can be discovered from the hyperlinks to the original text in Lehre und Wehre.

Highlighting is my own.  Underlining is in original.

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

At this point, Prof. McLaughlin broke this article in Lehre und Wehre into a separate month issue of the Orthodox Lutheran Theologian.  So below is what I either call "Part 4" of the OLT or Part 3b of the LuW series.  I have given it the title "Open Questions".  One quote from this section:

...every true Bible doctrine is Lutheran Church doctrine, even if it is not Lutheran Symbolical doctrine. 

The series of Walther's articles that Pieper refers to in the below installment was translated and printed in 8 issues of vol. 10 (1939) of Concordia Theological Monthly [2018-08-29: added link].– titled The False Arguments for the Modern Theory of Open Questions.  These 8 articles were reprinted in booklet form by Concordia Theological Seminary Press in the 1990s.  Pieper's installment below is a marvelous synopsis of Walther's teaching.


Let me repeat the last quote of this installment from Pastor Hochstetter:

...the Missourian teachers lay not so much in their dependence upon the Symbols, as rather in their reverence for God’s Word!

This is why they also defended the Biblical teaching on geocentricity, usury, women in the church, etc.  Christians who deny the clear Scriptural teaching on these are putting themselves on shaky ground for they are questioning that same Word that proclaims their salvation.  Those Lutherans today who wrap themselves in the term "confessional Lutherans", yet have not the "reverence for God's Word" as the true "Missourian teachers" of the old (German) Missouri Synod, are name only "confessional Lutherans".

Next is Part 4 – Lutheran Dogmaticians, Repristination.