Walther's hermeneutics essay: 1867 Northern District; Fuerbringer compared

      While reviewing the convention essays of the old Missouri Synod, I ran across the essay that the Director of Concordia Historical Institute, August Suelflow, had overlooked as being delivered by C. F. W. Walther. As called out on my "Convention Essays" blog, Franz Pieper identified Walther as the uncredited essayist for the 1867 Northern District convention: "Principles of the Lutheran Church on the Interpretation of Scripture". I had originally labeled this essay as addressing the subject of "exegesis", but after researching the terminologies of this field, I discovered that it may be more appropriately labeled as dealing with Biblical Hermeneutics. After realizing that this was one of the essays on my "Convention Essays" blog which did not offer an English translation, I decided to put the effort into getting it properly translated. 

 

    C. F. W. Walther                                L. Fuerbringer
       orthodox                                        mediating?

    Judging by the popularity of my upload of Prof. Ludwig Fuerbringer's Theological Hermeneutics, it would seem that Walther's essay will have great interest for anyone interested in what was taught by the old Missouri Synod, especially by Walther himself. Of course Walther dealt with this subject in other writings, e.g. his True Visible Church book, his edited Baier-Walther Compendium, and his many writings in the publications Der Lutheraner and Lehre und Wehre.

      A casual comparison between Walther's essay and Fuerbringer's booklet seems to indicate that the latter is more technical, and even relied on unorthodox German theologians: Schleiermacher, Cremer, and Zezschwitz. Walther uses no Greek or Hebrew words. Also while Fuerbringer mentions the errors of the "Romanists" and the "Reformed", Walther calls out these fellowships, the "Papists", "Reformed" and "enthusiasts", nearly 10 times as often. Walther's essay includes many quotes from the Confessions, Luther, Gerhard, Pfeiffer, Baier, etc. Fuerbringer only references his sources but does not quote them. He includes no references to the great John Gerhard. — Overall, while Fuerbringer does make good use of Luther's writings and the Lutheran Confessions, yet his technical treatment and weak statements leaves one wondering if he was inclined to take a mediating position. He used statements that opened the door for later "Walkout" sympathizing LC-MS theologians like Profs. Robert H. Smith and Norman Habel. 

      Not so with C. F. W. Walther:

Page 9: "For the papacy is also a vain enthusiasm." 

10: "The enthusiasts falsely refer to the passage: 'The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.' (2 Cor. 3:6)"

13: "The papists' theology teaches that we must doubt grace…"

25: "diabolical doctrines of the pope and the papists"

Other notable quotes from this essay:

8: "Everyone must have divine certainty from Holy Scripture itself, not standing on the light of nature, but on the light of the Holy Spirit."

9: "…the Holy Spirit has placed the words in such a way that the meaning intended by Him can be recognized from them. — It is on such certainty of the Holy Spirit that a Christian bases his consolation in mortal distress."

11: "No man has the right to interpret Scripture, but only the Holy Spirit."

12: "The Lutheran Church has confessed that the Pope [not just the Papacy] of Rome is the Antichrist. Anyone who does not believe this is not a Lutheran." [Can we not conclude that some theologians in the LC-MS are not Lutheran?]

17-18: "God has never directed us to tradition, but to the Scriptures alone." [Against Prof. Joel Biermann's teaching on the place of "tradition" in theology.]

19: "The inner light of which the enthusiasts, especially the Quakers, boast is the devil's light."

20: "What follows from the Scriptures is what it says. The Bible does not contain the word "triune", nor does it say "three persons", and yet Christians believe and confess it… Almost all doctrines of Christianity are the result of such conclusions." [Against the revered LC-MS theologian Martin Franzmann who said that there are no scripture passages clearly establishing the inerrancy of Holy Scripture.]

22: "…not to doubtful passages, e.g. … to John 6, for there is no trace of Holy Communion."  [Against Prof. David Scaer]

25: Luther: "But if any of them should challenge you, saying, 'We must have the interpretation of the Fathers, that the Scriptures are dark,' you should answer that it is not true.… They speak such things only to lead us out of the Scriptures and exalt themselves as masters over us, that we should believe their dream sermons." [Against Prof. Joel Biermann of CSL.]

28: Luther: "the Scriptures are their own light. This is how it is when Scripture interprets itself."

30: "the newer theologians… have invented a completely new doctrine of the Lord's Supper, which they base on John 6, but which does not speak of the Lord's Supper." [Against Prof. David Scaer]

34: "Even those who do not know the basic languages can be divinely certain that their German Bible is the Word of God, because they receive the testimony of the Holy Spirit through it." [Not spoken of by Fuerbringer.]

39: Gerhard: "Allegories, tropologies, and anagogies are not different senses, but different inferences from that one sense" and Pfeiffer: "for not to mean merely one thing is to mean nothing certain".

40: "A signpost must show so clearly that only one way can be understood. The newer theologians claim that the Scriptures have a multiple meaning… But no Christian can comfort himself with this, because he must be continually in fear as to what is the meaning intended by the Holy Spirit."

41: "There is no second sense of the word in Scripture, only of things."

41: "Even if Luther almost always gives a secret interpretation of the Gospel in his Church Postils, he was too fond of the weakness of his time, and no one is entitled to follow him in this. The listeners demanded it; but since Luther spoke of nothing more than faith and love in these secret interpretations, the listeners themselves finally grew tired of it, which is why we find nothing more of the secret interpretations in the House Postils, which were written later." [That Walther is a Lutheran theologian of the first rank is exhibited here as he calls out Luther's use of "secret interpretations", but shows these came from the early Luther's Church Postils, which the later, stronger Luther outgrew with his House Postils. (Ref. Klug, House Postils, "Preface", p. 13) An analogy to this is when Luther outgrew his respect for the Pope, and later identified him as the very Antichrist.]

49: "A Christian has to do only with those things that are so certain that he can live and die on them."

      The following is the English translated file that utilized the DeepL Translator as its basis, and was somewhat polished. It includes numerous hyperlinks for navigation and to its references for immediate access, especially for the Lutheran Confession (Triglotta), and Luther's Works (St. Louis Edition and American Edition):

A file without highlights may be directly accessed >> here <<; the German text >> here <<.

      May this uncovered essay of Walther provide readers with the defense and comfort they need for their faith, so that the the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures are so certain for them that they "can live and die on them". Amen!