EC3a: Loehe & the Last Unction (reckless, betrayal)

Romanizing Lutheran

     This continues from Part EC3 (Table of Contents in Part EC1), a series restoring availability of English translations of several of Walther's convention essays that have seemingly been abandoned by Concordia Publishing House. — Although this segment is not associated with a CPH previously translated convention essay of Walther, I ran across a short blurb in the report of the 1858 Western District convention that had an interesting title on p. 31 (see image below). It had to do with the "Last Unction", or what is called today "Extreme Unction", or "Anointing of the Sick". What I found was a surprisingly sharp rebuke of Pastor Wilhelm Loehe, just as was done by Walther in the same convention's essay on "Confessional Subscription".

       In the report, background reference was made to an article in Lehre und Wehre, so I took the time to polish a translation of that brief article. Although not indicated, it was surely written by Editor C. F. W. Walther. From Lehre und Wehre, vol. 4, p. 90 (March, 1858) [Google Books]:

The Last Unction [performed by Loehe].

    Even this institution is being repristinated by the Romanizing Old Lutherans in our day. We learn from the Noerdlinger Correspondenzblatt, published by Bauer in Neuendettelsau and Stirner in Fürth, that Mr. Loehe has done so. He does, however, cite a passage from Luther, who, according to this saying, wanted to allow the sick person to be anointed with oil in addition to other treatment. But if Luther, in his great prudence, allowed the Papists to retain this practice, provided they did not add anything to it, it would hardly be possible to dismiss it as if it were in Luther's spirit for Lutherans to reintroduce this ceremony now, when it is impossible to offend any Lutheran by omitting it. It does not occur to us to accuse Pastor Loehe of the already established doctrine that the Last Unction is a sacrament, but there is no doubt in our minds that the reintroduction of the same on his part arises from a certain sympathy for a cult, such as the Roman one, and that, however innocent the matter may now appear, it could easily become the seed of the most dangerous vines in the garden of our church. If Herr Pastor Loehe had a truly Lutheran spirit, it would not occur to him to commit such extravagances, and indeed such extravagances with which he tramples on the feelings of all Lutherans, indeed of all Protestants, with unparalleled ruthlessness. History also teaches us that most of the atrocities of the Roman Church started out as harmless enough. There is no need to paint the devil on the wall; he comes of himself.

    We will print the relevant passage here, recording it as a sign of the times from the December number of the Correspondenzblatt from 1857: …[see the Last Unction liturgy used by Loehe on pp. 90-94]

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      Now that we have the background on this matter, we find that the Synod's 1858 Western District wanted to add their own pronouncements, applied in the form of resolutions at their convention (p. 31):

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Pastor Loehe and the Last Unction.

A member of the Synod drew the Synod's attention to the report in the March issue of Lehre und Wehre [v. 4, p. 90-94] about the Unction [Oelung: "oiling"] performed on a sick person by Pastor Loehe in the Deaconess Institute in Neuendettelsau.

The Synod recognized it as its duty to address this in the following resolutions.

Resolved:

1. The Synod deems it a reckless presumption that a minister of the Church who is bound to the confessions of the Church should presume on his own hand to introduce a ceremony which must give offense to the whole Church.

2. The Synod considers it outrageous when Pastor Loehe invokes Christian freedom and thus performs the ceremony in obedience to an apostolic command.

3. The Synod declares it to be a betrayal of the Lutheran Church to say that the latter had only evaded its duty to obey this command, which was supposedly not temporary but given for all time, by subterfuge.

4. The Synod declares it to be a blasphemous offense against God's Word and an antichristian denial of the Gospel to say that this ceremony is performed in obedience to a divine command, and yet at the same time to cast doubt not only on whether the Lord will grant the sick person bodily healing, but even on whether he will also grant him peace, i.e. the forgiveness of sins.

5. The Synod cherishes the confident hope that, as a result of such atrocious phenomena, the eyes of all honest Lutherans in Germany, too, may be opened to the goal to which such a Romanizing direction as that of Pastor Loehe, deeply mourned by the Synod, necessarily leads.

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     Hmmm… indeed a very sharp rebuke of Loehe: “reckless presumption”, “outrageous”, “betrayal of the Lutheran Church”, “blasphemous offense against God's Word”, “Romanizing direction…deeply mourned by the Synod”. — 

      In today's LCMS, their "Christian Cyclopedia" offers no Christian teaching against the prevailing practice of "Extreme Unction" or "Anointing of the Sick". One must go back to the 1927 and 1954 Cyclopedias to get a Lutheran warning on this practice. Proof positive that there is a "certain sympathy for a cult, such as the Roman one" that largely ignores these issues, also with Loehe. — In the next Part EC4 we uncover again Walther's love for the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification.