Walther's "sharp polemics" against Stellhorn: Excursus on Election of Grace

     This blog post follows Chapter 11 of Hochstetter's History, and is a prelude to the following Chapter 12, in order to set the stage for one of the sharpest rebukes that came from the pen of C.F.W Walther against his opponents.  He had several of these in his lifetime, but it is striking to read of Walther's vehemence in this writing.  One is reminded of Luther's sharp rebukes of his opponents, such as Erasmus, who thought they were doing God's work while they are actually teaching false doctrine. —  

      I almost abandoned this post because I discovered that this writing of Walther had already been translated in 1881 by August Crull [pic] and was reprinted in the new 2018 CPH book Predestination, p. 203-205, apparently verbatim. But then I considered that this portion is a perfect brief synopsis of Walther and his determination to stick with the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions, come what may. And so I am publishing this brief "Preface" so that it is freely available to the public. (Then one should purchase the CPH book for the full writing.)

      The following is from Walther's pamphlet entitled (translated) Illumination of Stellhorn's Treatise on the Controversy over the Doctrine of the Election of Grace, but what a preface it is. In matters of such importance, both Luther and Walther were prepared to lay down their lives, for it concerned God's grace. (The German text may be accessed >> here << for those readers of that language.)

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Translation by BackToLuther utilizing DeepL Translator. Highlighting is mine. <p. xxx> indicates page breaks in Predestination-Crull translation.

Illumination

of

Stellhorn's Treatise

on the 

Controversy over the Doctrine of the Election of Grace.

by C.F.W. Walther.

Preface.

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

When we received and read the treatise of Prof. Stellhorn on the occasion of this year's meetings of our Delegate Synod in Fort Wayne, we thought that it was not worth the effort to counter it with a special refutation.  

• The way in which Prof. Stellhorn's handling of the Holy Scriptures in this treatise is so completely non-Lutheran; 
• the reversals of the words of our precious Confession, of which he is guilty, are so striking; 
• the falsifications of historical facts that appear in the booklet are so easily recognized; 
• the distortions of our doctrines, which the professor allows himself, are so coarse and clumsy; 
• the atrocious teachings which the author attributes to us are so clearly shown to be deliberate;
• synergism and rationalism, from which the writer claims to be so far removed, are so widespread in the booklet; 
• the rejection of the sunlit doctrines of Scripture and knowledge documented in it is so boldly and unashamedly pronounced; 
• the conclusions of reason with which the pure doctrine of Scripture is to be overthrown in it are so null and void in the hearts of all Christian believers; 
• the hostile intention with which everything is written is so clearly betrayed in it for everyone — 

that we thought there could hardly be a reader who would not immediately notice all this, if he yet cares for the truth.  But in this we were unfortunately mistaken.  The tract has not only been read with eagerness by party comrades, praised as a particularly “solid” work  <page 4> and spread with great zeal; here and there also honest souls seeking truth have had the Treatise played into their hands, who have not, at least not consistently, seen through the deception practiced in it and who <p. 204> have therefore been deceived by it.  So we have recognized it as our duty to write and publish a short “illumination” of Stellhorn's treatise. [balance of "Preface" follows after break below; Hist16, Chapter 12 of Hochstetter in next post.]

We have considered it necessary not to proceed too gently with Prof. Stellhorn in this counter-statement.  We are therefore prepared for a great outcry to be raised about the sharpness of our polemics (especially in Germany, where it is the rule to compliment even the falsifiers of the Word of God, of the Confessions and of Christian doctrines in general).  That Prof. Stellhorn has blasphemed our doctrines, which are based on God's Word and clearly testified to in the Confessions of our Church, as well as our person, in the most horrible way, is quite acceptable.  The fact that we, in order not to bear the blame for the disturbance of the peace of the Church, have patiently let ourselves be desecrated throughout the world as mischievous crypto-Calvinists, without any counter-attacks, over the course of years and days, is also to be respected for something with which we, without earning any praise for it, have only done our duty and obligation.  But the fact that we now take off the sheep's clothing of our opponents — will in any case be credited to us as an unforgivable sin.  But we are very confident in this.  Some of those who are friendly to us and to the truth have confessed to us that they have been wavering back and forth for a long time precisely because we have been so gentle with them, so that it seems that we ourselves are not quite sure of our faith and our doctrines.  We therefore see more and more clearly that we owe it to the cause of truth, and especially to the weak among Christians, to treat our opponents, moreover, no longer with the almost <page 5> unprecedented gentleness with which we have treated them for a whole year, but to meet them with the same care as they deserve; lest any soul ever accuse us before God that we ourselves are to blame for their having gone astray and become the prey of the erring spirits, because we did not do what our office required, namely by shamefully neglecting the commandment which the holy apostle gave to the ministers of the Church: “To rebuke the gainsayer, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not.”  (Tit 1:9-11) [composite from Luther’s German text & KJV].

But perhaps we will also be accused of judging hearts in our booklet, which is forbidden.  But they may say so.  It is quite untrue.  We do not judge what is hidden in hearts, but words and deeds, and therefore we attribute all the manifest dishonesty and insincerity of our opponents not to conscious malice, but rather to the blindness and fanaticism in which they have fallen through God's judgment, and as a result they imagine that they are really fighting for the truth, while they are fighting against the truth and for their own fantasies.

To conclude, just this remark: that it has truly been no pleasure for us to forcibly attack a man who has been so close to us up to now, yes, who for three years, when he was a student, was himself one of those “St. Louis <p. 205> men” who, in his treatise alone, he chose as the target of his unreasonable attacks.  How we would have loved to be relieved of this sad work!  But the glory of God's Word, the good of the Church, of which we are a humble servant, and the salvation of the inexperienced Christians, of whom we are debtors, has forced us to this little refutation and defense.  May the faithful God be commended the fruit of it.  May He, <page 6> for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, grant it so that our opponents will not allow themselves to be embittered by it, but will reflect better on the great cause at stake, and finally also on the truth we confess, and then, as it says in that Church prayer, “desist and come to live with us in peace and meekness”.

And now only the note that the numbers in this little booklet are the citations from the Book of Concord, indicating the page number from the Müller edition, which is in the margin of our St. Louis edition.

C. F. W. W. [alther].