Rome–2: THE Rome fighter today->Pieper!; Monstrous Lie! Murder of Souls!

      This continues from Part 1 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a translation of Franz Pieper's essay in 1896 on the failure of the evangelical churches of Germany to fight against the Papacy in his day.

Prince Max of Saxony

     In Part 1, Pieper shows the failure of German "Evangelicals" by publicizing a member of the German royal family who entered the Roman Catholic priesthood, who even preached a sermon requesting all Evangelicals to return to the true Church, the Pope's Church.  But Pieper uses "Prince Max" for quite the opposite purpose...  Does any teacher in today's LC-MS say that the Pope is a murderer of souls?  No? 

To: President Matthew Harrison, 

Would you, in honor of this year's celebration of the Reformation, publicly pronounce the Pope as the greatest murderer of souls in the world?  No?  But you stated that (in the Preface to your book At Home In the House of My Fathers) "I live and long and work for the future of the Lutheran Church, here and now."  And a pronouncement of this type would surely give today's Lutheran Church a "here and now" shot in the arm.  And you recently called on Franz Pieper's name as you pleaded for financial support for your LC-MS seminaries, ... but... but you would not listen to Pieper's (and the Lutheran Confessions') teaching against Rome?

Translation by BTL – Underlining from original  – Highlighting is mine – Hyperlinks added for reference.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The False Stance of Present-Day Evangelical Christianity Against Rome.

by Franz Pieper

Doctrine and Defense, (Lehre und Wehre), 1896, vol 42, pgs 289-297
--------   cont'd from Part 1  ---------

[pg 291]

The Prince said that only the pope’s church was in possession of the truth, and he calls – following the Pope’s Encyclical – all non-papists to come under the dominion of the Pope, that "The arms of the church were opened wide to lovingly include the returnees."  Does a possibility exist by such a sermon, "to promote the soul’s  salvation of the congregation"?  Does it take care of the souls, if one assigns them to the Pope and eo ipso leads away from Christ?  No, such a sermon is a great, terrible denial of the saving Gospel and a proclamation and celebration of the Pope’s monstrous lie.  Through such preaching the Prince of Saxony has not taken care of souls but, so far as in him, murdered the souls.

Therefore, when the Church and School Journal also says in relation to the preaching of the Prince of Saxony, "whether he with it meets the right thing in every certain single case and promotes in particular the soul’s salvation of his congregation, is merely his cause and in the present situation is a question which touches us less”, so this reveals an entirely false stance to the papacy.  It does not reject the papacy as a soul murderous horror, but lets it pass as an ecclesiastical institution through which souls are still supplied, though perhaps not as good as within the Lutheran Church.  This fits the further execution of the writer.  Having pointed out the omissions of Germania on the occasion of the "princely sermon" 1), he continues: "One should think it not possible that a Catholic journal can accept such a provocative language, especially since the Protestant side has already avoided everything with meticulous care the slightest impulse to cause offense towards the Catholic sister church."  — There we have it! The Catholic Church is a "sister church"!  The church, which in the Council of Trent cursed the Gospel and those who cling to the Gospel; the church, the great ecclesiastical machinery working towards only one goal, namely to plant and maintain confidence in human works in the hearts, and to constantly destroy and tear from the hearts the faith in Christ that we attain mercy and salvation alone for Christ's perfect merit; the church, which puts in the place of Christ and his Word the Pope's word and authority – this church should be a "sister church" of the Lutheran church!  Nevertheless, the writer in the Saxon Church and School Journal wants to fight against the "Catholic sister church".  But how?  He closes thus: "Here has the Evangelical clergy, and particularly the Evangelical Lutherans to advocate at every suitable place through word and writing

--------------

1) An expression of the Church and School Journal.

[pg 292]

on such arrogances as they advance with all energy towards Ultramontanism almost daily.  We even said that especially all of the evangelical Lutheran clergy must act in the sense indicated; precisely this, because he so often has to read in Catholic papers that our Luther was a discontented innovator and drunkard and his Kate was a lecherous nun, while both really deserve to be issued as a pattern for the most beautiful and purest family life." —   So they fight against Rome mainly because Luther’s person is attacked!  To this battle the "Evangelical Lutheran clergy" would be particularly committed.  Certainly "Lutherans" will also sometimes reject the shameless Roman lies against Luther's person.  But if one wants to make this personal side the main point of the dispute, then Luther says: "Whether Luther is a rascal or a saint I do not care; but his doctrine is not his, but Christ’s.  For you see that the tyrants do not deal with the fact that they only kill Luther, but they want to destroy the doctrine; and on account of the doctrine they grope at you and ask you if you are Lutheran.  Here you must truly not speak with slippery or evasive words, but freely confess Christ, whether it was Luther, Claus or George who preached it.  The person let go; but the doctrine you must confess." 1)  Hereby we are reminded of the basic damage to modern polemics against Rome.  It does not perform an energetic doctrinal fight against Rome.  Neither is the pure doctrine of the Gospel, still the abomination of the gospel canceling Pope’s doctrine placed rightly into the light.  One gets the impression from most modern Rome fighters that they would stop their polemics if Rome would only acknowledge other church fellowships as equally entitled.  In the latter case, one would leave Rome alone in spite of its peculiar doctrine, probably even extend the hand of brotherhood.  In contrast, it should be noted: it is God's will and the duty of the Christian Church, to endlessly and with holy zeal fight Rome’s hideous, soul-killing doctrine.  This alone is the right stand against Rome.

In Germany and especially in Saxony, there are many failures in the last few months.  It made quite a stir that a Prince of Saxony was ordained a priest, read Mass and then held a real popish sermon.  All newspapers wrote of it.  Nothing happens by chance.  God has approved – there can be no doubt – the priest ordination, Mass reading, and preaching of the Prince of Saxony so that the evangelical Church in Germany has the opportunity to uncover before all eyes the horrible abomination of a popish priesthood, Mass and sermon

--------------

1) St. L. ed. vol. 20, col. 91, paragr. 77 ; cp. Am. Ed. vol. 36, pgs. 265-266: “Receiving Both Kinds in the Sacrament”

[pg 293]

and to illuminate the whole abomination of the Papal Church again with the light of the Gospel.

= = = = = = = =  Cont'd in Part 3  = = = = = = = =

     Holy Anger!  Franz Pieper's statements are quite breathtaking in their forcefulness!  How foreign these words are to our modern world, to modern theology.

Prof. Roland Ziegler

"papacy is what it was"

     To clarify, today's LC-MS is heterodox, but is not in total apostasy.  For Prof. Roland Ziegler wrote this in honor of C.F.W. Walther:

"But if the gospel of free grace is still condemned by Rome, then the papacy is what it was before." – Prof. Roland Ziegler, CTS-FW

Did Prof. Ziegler really say this in print?  Still, he could have stated this even more emphatically... like Prof. Franz Pieper does –> Rome murders souls.

In the next Part 3...