History 4b: “Foreword” (2 of 2)

      This continues from Part 4a (Table of Contents in Part 3), a series presenting an English translation of Pastor Christian Hochstetter's 1885 496-page book entitled (abbreviated) The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884. — This segment concludes the "Foreword" by the author, and explains why all Lutherans, indeed all Christians, would do well to read this History.

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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation.  All highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine.

Hochstetter (older age)

[page VIII]

On the other hand, it was also easy to attack the purely Lutheran doctrine of the Election of Grace [or Predestination], based on the Holy Scriptures, because many now are agreed according to Calvin's false doctrine, based on rational deductions, that it is exclusively a matter for the Reformed to have a doctrine of predestination, this doctrine was none of our business for us Lutherans! The vast majority of those who come to America from Germany think that we must fearfully guard against this doctrine, and it would be best not to talk about it at all. It must lead either to despair or to carnal security. In addition, thirdly, although Sacred Scripture often and extensively teaches of the election of grace for the children of God, many later teachers of the Lutheran Church left Holy Scripture far too much to one side in this place, and partly with the intention of fighting Calvin in their own self-chosen way, and partly as a result of a tendency to make the incomprehensible comprehensible precisely here, deviated from the doctrine of the Formula of Concord that was based on Scripture. — The warning of the Formula of Concord that we should not investigate what God hides from this mystery of the election of grace, nor that we should conclude or ponder it according to our own thoughts, was disregarded. Our confession says: we cannot harmonize it! However, the later dogmatists already began to replace the general order of grace, as it was established by God for all people from eternity, with the special election of "special persons" who, according to the eternal purpose of God, are prescribed to attain eternal life by way of the order of grace. There is no doubt that in many passages of the Holy Scripture the Lord Christ, when he speaks of the chosen ones in John 10:28; 15:16 and Matt. 24:24, and the apostles, especially St. Paul in Romans chapters 8 and 9, reveal this election of grace to comfort and strengthen Christians in this last, evil time. Nevertheless, those who are now lecturing in the footsteps of Luther and in accordance with the [page IX] Formula of Concord are accused of being crypto-Calvinists, i.e. people who claim to be Lutheran but teach as Calvinists. — Since up to now in Germany the teachers of the Missouri Synod have been accused of being too servile to the Lutheran dogmatists and only repristinated them, this latest doctrinal dispute could have been seen as an example that we do not worship idolatry in matters of faith and doctrine and do not let our conscience be bound to human writings. *)

[*) There are still quite a few matters to be found, such as the doctrine of Sunday and the power of the secular government in church matters, in which we cannot follow the dogmatists, but teach on the basis of the Scripture according to our Lutheran symbols.] It is precisely during a doctrinal controversy that one becomes quite aware that nothing clings so firmly in one's conscience as the Word of God revealed in Holy Scripture, which is therefore also the only judge in the controversy and the perfect source of our Christian faith.

Meanwhile, in the course of this dispute, the fact came to light that the Missouri Synod had not a few kickers [Nachtreter] who were already secretly grieving that it had more enemies than many had previously thought. They believed that the hour had come when these Missourians, whose testimony had often rebuked them, could finally be branded as heretics to their heart's content! Already the Iowa Synod leaders reported in Germany: "So much is certain, Missouri wavers at its basic foundation", it was said: there, there! we wanted that! Ps. 35:25 [“Ah, so would we have it.”].  That is why in this doctrinal controversy, too, the battle was waged against the people, especially against the dear Dr. Walther, on whom the most poisonous arrows of the slanderous opponents were aimed. Of course, these arrows did not hit him; it was also only a small fraction of our ministry that allowed itself to be turned away from our synod, and the number of congregations that let themselves be swept away by this artificial current was even smaller. What Christain  [page X] hearts, however, should not be filled with sadness and melancholy over the fact that Dr. Walther had to issue a public warning to these slanderers, yes, that two of these slanderers were only willing to make a satisfactory apology from fear of the punishing arm of the government, in which they confessed that they had been confused with respect to the person, they now realize that Dr. Walther is a man of excellent piety, of sublime integrity of character, and rightly the recognized leader of the respectable body which he has headed since its existence, etc. *) [*) While even the church papers published outside our Synod expressed their indignation at these slanders, the Ohio Synod papers declared that Dr. Walther had caused this bitterness through his own fault!]

Just as it happened to Athanasius in the fight against Arianism, as the apostles had to experience it according to Christ's prophecy, so also now the faithful servants of God are still walking "by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report”, 2 Cor. 6:8. Also in Germany the Missouri Synod is at present badly disparaged. — It was recently noted by Dr. Walther in the Der Lutheraner: "The insults of our enemies are much more salutary to us than the praises we reap", and the founders of the Missouri Synod have always been far from wanting to set up a monument to their own glory through the Synod, yet the writer of these lines feels that now is the time to give an overview of the history of the Missouri Synod through this booklet, in which, as everyone knows, Dr. Walther's name must be mentioned on almost every page. Although he did not seek his own glory, St. Paul had to justify, for the glory and doctrine of God which he proclaimed, the administration of his office to the false teachers, and the writer of this would have liked a more skilful pen  [page XI] to put the Missouri Synod in perspective for its accusers. However, since the attempt which I made in the Lutheran Volksblatt in 1882 to describe the beginnings of the Missouri Synod was well received, I was repeatedly asked by the esteemed publisher, Heinrich J. Naumann of Dresden, to write a history of the Missouri Synod following the essay published in 18 issues of the Lutheran Volksblatt of Canada. This is now available in the present book. — In order to close this preface with a more pleasant note, a testimony is printed here, which the Missouri Synod received outside its area of responsibility from a publication published within the General Council, namely from the Pilgrim through World and Church in Vol. 5, p. 370, in the following words:

"This is not the place to go into the history of the Missouri Synod, the largest and most important Lutheran Synod in our country, but I do not wish to conceal or at least suggest that I have no more obvious example of how God blesses human faithfulness than the Missouri Synod itself. If she had not held so steadfastly to her profession of pure doctrine, if she had not borne witness so sharply and fought against all and every deviation from the path which she alone and correctly discerned, if she had shown herself to be more yielding in practice than in doctrine, if she had been just a little more comfortable with the views of our more easily fickle times, she would not have achieved what she can now call her own. She took her reason captive under the obedience of Christ and the Lord has rewarded her. The glory of God, the pure truth of the Word, which found its clearest expression in the confession of the Lutheran Church, stood and stands higher to her than the favor of the world and the windy inventions of men. If the Lord God had not had mercy on the Lutheran Church in America by placing the Missouri Synod in its midst, we would be a small group that might still bear the name  [page XII] Lutheran, but would otherwise be an open pasture for foxes and other wild animals. When I think of what has been done by the grace of God by the Missourians, I cannot join in the clamor against them. It is my belief that the Missourians attribute their success to God's grace, not to their diligence, however proud they may be of it. The Lord bless the brave Saxons and make their salt work ever more vigorously in the leaven of American church life."

In the hope that many more will join in this blessing, this book is handed over to the reader for careful consideration

Wolcottsville, Niagara County, New York, 

in October 1884.

The Author.

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      Why was this major book of Church History published in Germany and not by Concordia Publishing House?  Evidently the publisher in Germany, Hans J. Naumann of Dresden, was sympathetic to the "Missourians". This was an unusual situation because of Germany's general antagonism for those new American Lutherans.  How ironic it is that Concordia Publishing House today does not see fit to publish the available English translation. Could it be that CPH did not publish Kramer's translation of Hochstetter because Hochstetter is too Lutheran?… too Lutheran for today's LC-MS?... that it clearly refutes Forster and Mundinger and other LCMS historians?... that it too clearly delineates Walther's Church and Ministry?... that it too clearly exposes Wilhelm Loehe's errors?...  that it too clearly bases its whole theology on the Word of God?  Isn't Dr. Fred Kramer's "Foreword" today actually a polemic against his own LC-MS, especially of today? — I suspect Walther desired this book to be a witness to the fatherland, that Luther was still alive… but now in America.  And as one reads Hochstetter, this was not meant to show that Missourians were superior to Germany, but rather to show the fatherland the way… the way Back To Luther, the German Reformer who restored the Christian Gospel to it lampstand. — In the next Part 5 we begin with Chapter 1.