L01: Walther (and Luther) on the Law; everyone bound by "natural law"

      It has been universally acknowledged that the lectures of C. F. W. Walther that were assembled into the book The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel (or Law & Gospel) were an American masterpiece on the subject. Even Dr. Robert Kolb acknowledged this (p. 54) while at the same time being critical. So when I ran across a brief essay without an author's name in the 1861 Western District convention report (text DE, EN) on the subject of "the Law", I wondered that it was Walther who authored this piece. Why? Because the old Missouri Synod recognized that it was highly favored to have such a spiritual leader as Walther. (I am identifying the author as Walther until someone can provide evidence to the contrary.) And he was the obvious choice to handle this subject. What better teacher can there be to teach "the Law" than one who, since the days of Martin Luther, best distinguished it from the Gospel? (One can certainly rule out Artificial Intelligence to do the job!) — 

      Because of its importance, I have uploaded the original German text of this Western District essay to the Internet Archive here. After researching this short essay, it was discovered that a much expanded version was published later that same year (1861) in Lehre und Wehre, in 2 parts (November and December). The expanded portion was filled entirely with quotations from Luther's writings. There are 26 references to Luther.

      Upon reading this essay, one is immediately introduced to the subject of "natural Law". This was also the subject of a book of essays compiled and published by CPH in 2011 with the title Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal (Internet Archive copy). These were authored by an eclectic group that amazingly included ELCA and NALC (Marianne?) writers, ones who cannot teach a "Lutheran Reappraisal" because of their deviation from Lutheran doctrine in critical areas (e.g. Forde). There may be informative essays by some authors, such as Prof. Roland Ziegler on “Natural Law in the Lutheran Confessions” (p. 65 ff.), and Dr. Korey Maas, who stated (p. 226):

"A culture hostile to Christianity was, and is, incredibly unlikely to assent to any truth claim predicated on peculiarly Christian presuppositions".

But one can better avoid spiritual confusion when one rather learns first from the father of the Missouri Synod, and the Reformer, Martin Luther. — We begin our learning in the next Part L02. (The full text file will be available at the end of this series.) 

- - - - - - - - - - - -  TABLE OF CONTENTS  - - - - - - - - - - - - -

L01—This introduction: Walther and Luther on the Law

L02—Part I: 1., 2. What part of the Law now binds everyone? Natural law.

   L02a Excursus: Luther on Slavery: "revolting"; "inequality"?

L03—Part I: 3., 4. Reformed vs. New Testament on the Law

L04—Part I: 5., 6. Core of Ten Commandments & Christian freedom

L05—Part II: 1.  The Golden Rule: misconception #1

L06—Part II: 2.  The Golden Rule: misconception #2

L07—Part II: 3. Love is the master of all commandments

L08—Part III: 1. Law, the unchangeable will of God, indelibly written in the heart of every man

L09—Part III: 2., 3. Law shows our sin, even for true Christians

   L09a Excursus: False charges by LCMS: Walther a Pietist? (Eggold–Piepkorn–Pelikan; Wohlrabe,  McCain)

L10—Part IV: 1. Preaching of repentance from the law precedes that of Justification; Eggold's 2nd criticism 

L11—Part IV: 2., 3. Proper distinction of Law from Gospel