Missourian! Part 1 (Walther Foreword 1872 Der Lutheraner)

      I have labeled various theologians as "Missourian" on this blog at times.  But what is a "Missourian"?  To find an answer to that question, there is no better theologian to turn to than the father of the Old Missouri Synod, Dr. C.F.W. Walther.  And he gave a passionate, definitive answer in the Foreword to his periodical Der Lutheraner in the year 1872.  Below begins a 6-part series presenting the English translation of his full article and afterward a rare glowing response from Germany, the land which so often sneered at… those "Missourians".

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Taken from Der Lutherner v. 29 (1872), p. 1-2, 9-10. Translation by BackToLuther using DeepL, Google Translate, Microsoft, Yandex. Underlining follows Walther’s emphasis. All hyperlinks, highlighting, red text, text in square brackets [ ] are mine.

Foreword (“Vorwort”)

Twenty-ninth year of Der Lutheraner.
[by C.F.W. Walther, Part 1 of 5: "Missourian!"]

In the fight against the proper church of Christ, the evil enemy ever and always used this trick of war, that he first gave an evil, or suspicious, name to it through his beloved ones, and then used this name to characterize it as a sect.

Already the first Christians had to experience this. They were called Galileans, Nazarenes, and the like, and when they were called that, they thought they had done enough to warn against them as a bad, evil sect. When Nicodemus once only demanded this justice from the chief priests and Pharisees for Christ, that they should not judge him before they had interrogated him, they immediately cried: “Are you also a Galilean?” (John 7:50-52.) They wanted to say: "Do you not know that the followers of Jesus are not true Israelites, but a new sect called Galileans? Should you therefore not be ashamed, as a chief of the Pharisees, to protect such infamous people? When Paul, accused by the high priest Ananias and by the elders, stood before the governor Felix, they declared: "We have found this man harmful and one of the foremost of the Nazarene sect". (Acts 24:1-5.) they want to say, what do we need to further bear witness?

In the fourth century the Arians, who denied the deity of Christ, did the same. Since they saw themselves overcome by Athanasius, the mighty defender of the divinity of Christ, and were unable to stand up against his teaching, they now named those who confessed this teaching, Athanasians, by which name they intended nothing other than to make orthodox Christians into a new sect that had fallen away from the true teaching of Christ.  Instead of believing in Christ they believed in Athanasius, and making him their head.

Luther and his fellow confessors experienced the same thing four and a half centuries ago [sic, 3-1/2 not 4-1/2]. When the Papists could not refute Luther's teaching from Scripture, [column 2] they helped themselves, among other things, by calling all those who accepted Luther's pure Bible teaching and confessed it Lutherans. No matter how firmly Luther and his fellow believers protested against it, it helped them nothing, they should and must be Lutherans and called Lutherans. It is known that Luther already protested against this in the year 1522 as follows: 

“In the first place I ask to keep my name silent and not to be called Lutheran, but Christian. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. So I am crucified for no man. St. Paul 1 Cor. 3:4-5 did not want to suffer that the Christians should be called Paul or Peter, but Christians. How can I, a poor stinking maggot's bag, call the children of Christ by my hopeless name? Not so, dear friends; let us wipe out the partisan names, and Christians are called, that we have doctrine. The Papists have a cheap partisan name, because they are not content with Christ's doctrine and name; they also want to be a Papist: so let them be Papist, who is their Master. I am not and I do not want to be a master. I have with the church the agreed common doctrine of Christ, who alone is our Master, Matt. 23:8” (See Luther's writing: “Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion”. X, 420. f. [StL X 370-371, §25, Am. Ed. 45, 70-71) 

Luther therefore describes his proper disciples: 

“Many are you who believe for my sake, but those alone are the righteous who remain therein, whether they also hear that I myself denied it (because God is for!) and rejected it. These are they who ask no questions: how evil, abominable, shameful do they hear from me and from Ourselves? For they do not believe in Luther, but in Christ Himself. The Word has them, and they have the Word; they let Luther go, he is a knave, or saint. God can speak through Balaam, as well as through Isaiah, through Caiaphas, as through Peter, even through an ass. I'll stick with them, too. For I do not know Luther myself, nor will I know him; neither do I preach anything of him, but of Christ. The devil may fetch him if he can: but let Christ remain with peace, so shall we remain well.” (See: Missive to Hartmuth [column 3] von Cronberg, of the year 1522 XV, 1988. f.) [StL XV, 1670, §18; Am. Ed. 43, 68] 

But, as I said, all these protests were in vain with the enemies. They continued nonetheless to call all those who, like Luther, believed and with him confessed this faith, Lutherans.  Do you know why? For every one who heard at that time that there were people who called themselves Lutherans should and had to think that these were not people who had accepted the old Christian faith, but a new heretical, rapturous sect, to whose head Luther had given himself to be, and therefore it was quite right to persecute such people to the point of blood, and whoever fought against their doctrine did not fight against the Word of God, but against a new, highly perishable human doctrine! Even in 1524 Luther therefore wrote to the hard-hit Miltenberg citizens: 

“I have received through Dr. Johann Carlstadt *), your expelled pastor, and also through other thorough information how the enemies of the gospel and the assassins of souls treated you for the sake of the Word of God, which their slanderous tongues maliciously call Lutheran doctrine so that they may appear to be rendering God a service by persecuting human doctrine. The Jews did the same thing to the apostles, as Christ had prophesied beforehand. [Matt. 23:8] ("Interpretation of the 120th Psalm, in a Christian Letter of Consolation to the People of Miltenberg". V, 1846.) [StL V, 1274, §3, Am. Ed. 43, p. 104] 

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* It was not the infamous enthusiast [Andreas] Carlstadt who, as is well known, did not have the first name Johann, but Andreas.  Johann was a pious preacher who held with Luther.

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Luther also writes: 

“So we have such a disgraceful and shameful name before the world, which of course no one has had in a thousand years. When one can be called Lutheran or Evangelical, they think they have called him more than ten times devilish; he must be worth more than one hell.” ("Against the Blind and Great Condemnation of the 17 Articles, Emanated from the Wretched Shameful University of Ingolstadt". XXI, 130 [?]) [St. L. 21b, 3320, §5; not in Am. Ed.]  

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      We see that Walther does not begin his article speaking about the term "Missourian" but about earlier terms of disgrace in the history of Christianity.  He is instructing his readers in the art of true, Christian doctrinal defense, showing that one must first be standing on the Rock in order to be able to see the truth in all matters.  And, of course, in the process he goes Back To Luther. —  In the next Part 2, Walther writes more about the time of the Reformation, and those "Lutherans!".

= = = = = =  Table of Contents  = = = = = = =
Part 1: This post – older names of "disgrace" in Christianity
Part 2: Lutheran Martyrs; deny Luther?; ceased as dirty word? or not? Reformed and Catholics
Part 3: A Missourian is…what ? (Walther's detailed definition begins); denying it = falling from grace
Part 4: A Missourian wants to be…; Who attacks them? Biblicism?… or “ink theologians”?
Part 5: Lutheran Church has ever and always…; "What, are you also Lutheran?"
Part 6: Avid German response to America… and a mediator; Germany today?