Triglotta– Sasse/Ziegler criticize "Missouri" (5b)... Brief Statement over Confessions?

This continues from Part 5a, part of a series concerning the newly available book Concordia Triglotta from CPH. (See Table of Contents here)  And Part 5b continues a review of an essay from Prof. Roland Ziegler (of CTS-FW) published in CTQ of April 2002 on the newest English translation (Kolb-Wengert) of the Lutheran Confessions (or the "Book of Concord").  The title of Ziegler's essay was "The New Translation of the Book of Concord: Locking the Barn Door After...".  Although this essay has value in pointing out the deficiencies of the unionistic Kolb-Wengert edition, it detracts from this message (on pages 160-165) when it begins to criticize the old Missouri Synod.  And so Prof. Ziegler has forced me to study the writings of Hermann Sasse and the defenses of Sasse by today's (English) LC-MS.  What I found was a not-so-veiled attack on the teachings of the old Missouri.   How so?  Read on...

The original essay's text is in black text.

Highlighting in yellow or blue is of significant wording by Ziegler.  

My comments are in red font. Many hyperlinks added throughout.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  cont'd from Part 5a  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

The New Translation of the Book of Concord:

Closing the barn door after...

Roland F. Ziegler

(CTQ, April 2002, pages 145-165 - reviewed pages 160-165)

4) The Confessions in the LCMS (pg 161)

There are also problems in the LCMS, and they did not originate in the sixties nor were they caused by the baby boomers.

So... just who is Ziegler going to consult as his source to find fault in the LCMS?

Hermann Sasse ...

Oh no... Hermann Sasse?!  Hermann Sasse is to be Ziegler's reference to judge the LCMS??  I see now who I am going to have to contend with – an LCMS "à la Sasse".

observed in 1951 in his article "Confession and Scripture in the Missouri Synod": "The Lutheran Confessions no longer play the role in the life and in the theological thinking of the Missouri Synod, ...

I see...  Prof. Ziegler is holding up Hermann Sasse as a great champion of the Lutheran Confessions.  But 1951 is 30 years after the Concordia Triglotta was first published.  It is 20 years after Franz Pieper died.  Indeed it was 12 years after Prof. Theo. Graebner declared there was no difference between the LC-MS and other American Lutheran churches in the Doctrine of Justification, and thus the new (English) LCMS was born!

in fact, of all of American Lutheranism by far which they played during the 19^th century."⁴⁶ 

This is a misrepresentation of the facts, especially by Sasse who ignored the great work and celebration surrounding the Concordia Triglotta in 1921 – in the Twentieth Century!  Sasse would not see this because his own doctrine of Scripture was seriously flawed.

Sasse criticizes a mindset that takes the confessions for granted, ...

That "mindset that takes the confessions for granted" came from the new English LCMS!... NOT the old (German) Missouri Synod before the death of Franz Pieper!

that no longer seeks to demonstrate their biblical foundation, that no longer applies the Confessions to the current theological questions, but rather produces new theological documents, like the Brief Statement, ...

This charge is absolutely false!  It is a slap at the old Missouri's tenacious teaching of the absolutely inerrant, infallible Holy Scriptures, a doctrine in which Sasse erred in 1951, the time of this writing 1951. (see Sasse's Bethel Confession)  Only later did Sasse supposedly "remove" and "clarify" his stand against the absolutely inerrant, infallible Bible... yet he judges the old Missouri Synod, with its Brief Statement which "takes the confessions for granted".

which then – for all practical purposes – take the place of the Confessions.

I can scarcely catch my breath when I read this outrageous statement by Sasse... and Ziegler has the audacity to repeat it!  Is this what you really believe, Prof. Ziegler, that Pieper's Brief Statement was meant to take the place of the Lutheran Confessions?  If so, are you also weak on the Doctrine of the inerrancy and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures?

He points to the strange lack of confessional reflection in liturgical matters,...

It was Friedrich Bente who said (which Pieper repeats) of the Lutheran Church that it was "not her beautiful liturgical forms... but the precious truths confessed by her symbols in perfect agreement with the Holy Scriptures constitute the true beauty and rich treasures of our Church, as well as the never-failing source of her vitality and power."  So if this charge by Sasse (and Ziegler for its repetition) is to stick, then it sticks only to his LCMS, the new English LCMS that Prof. Theo. Graebner spearheaded, definitely not to the old (German) Missouri Synod.

so that, for example, in the case of the debate on the introduction of an

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⁴⁵ Empie and McCord, Marburg Revisited, 191.

⁴⁶ Hermann Sasse, "Confession and Scripture in the Missouri-Synod" in Herman Sasse, Scripture and the Church: Selected Essays, edited by Jeffrey J. Kloha and Ronald R. Feuerhahn (Saint Louis: Concordia Seminary, 1995), 205.

Page 162

epiclesis, the theology of consecration in the Formula of Concord VII is not considered.

Sasse's charge clearly should be aimed at the very ones who hold him up today – Profs. David Scaer and other champions of the "Liturgical Movement" in the LCMS (the followers of Arthur Carl Piepkorn and  Berthold von Schenk).  What irony comes from Prof. Ziegler's repetition of Sasse's charge on this point.
- - - - - - - - - Continued in Part 5c - - - - - - - - - -

There is no way that I would have now spent many weeks to study the writings of Hermann Sasse... except Prof. Ziegler and President Matthew Harrison make the attempt to mix Sasse's teaching with those of Walther and Pieper...  but they are like oil and water.  The next Part 5c continues Ziegler's breath-taking judgment of old Missouri...