Triglotta– difficult, impossible, not serious? OR Great work! Golden! (Scaer/LC-MS) Part 3

      This concludes from Part 2c (Table of contents in Part 1) in connection with the unveiling of the complete 1921 Concordia Triglotta on Google Books this year, 2017. —  After thoroughly studying the writings on Lutheranism's "sola fide", I return again to focus on how this book has fared in the 20th century and now in the 21st century.
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     Some may wonder how it came about that the massive Concordia Triglotta book (1551 pages!) came into disuse so quickly after its introduction in 1921.  It is puzzling because it was a massive effort by the old (German) Missouri Synod to bring the Book of Concord into an American edition that included the original Latin and German languages.  World War I had forced them to develop their own supply since their sourcing from Germany was cut off.  The 400th Anniversary of the Reformation in 1917 provided the motivation to commit large amounts of money and teaching staff resources. And there was great joy from "real orthodoxy" (my use of Sasse's term) exhibited at the unveiling of the Concordia Triglotta in 1921.

      In 1989 Dr. Robert Preus gave us a mile-marker on the road to oblivion paved for the Concordia Triglotta.  In his Foreword to the book Concordance to the Book of Concord (edited by K. Larson, published by NPH) he said (all emphases mine):

“Members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and of the former Synodical Conference may wonder why the Tappert text was the preferred choice from which to make a concordance. The reason is quite simple. Even in Missouri Synod circles the Tappert text is the one the overwhelming number of students have been using for the last twenty years. The Triglotta, however, is referenced as well, which will enable older pastors and those who want to check the Latin and German the opportunity to use the concordance to great advantage as well.”  –  Dr. Robert Preus

Preus testifies that the Triglotta was essentially abandoned by 1969.  It seems a bit strange to me why he made no comment about this situation, no reason was given, no expression of sorrow over this… it just happened.  The LC-MS killed it by using the Tappert edition.  Why?

      But the mystery begins to be solved when one sees how quickly the old (German) Missouri Synod morphed into today's (English) LC-MS, a synod that would almost overnight become an enemy of the teachings of its forefathers.  The history of the breakup of the old Synodical Conference and of the separation by some prominent members (OLC, etc.) testifies to this sudden (almost unbelievable) change.  But what about today's LC-MS, here and now, supposedly recovered from its "explosion"?

Dr. David P. Scaer – against the Concordia Triglotta

Dr. David P. Scaer of Concordia Theological Seminary-Fort Wayne is thought of as one who defended against those who left the LC-MS in a walkout in 1974 and formed Seminex.  But his stand for the faithfulness of the old Missouri Synod seems in question as he has issues with the "noble" Concordia Triglotta.  In the following table, I present his comment from the year 2000 and compare it with other Lutheran scholars for a survey on the book that celebrated old Missouri's 400th Anniversary of the Reformation:

Concordia Triglotta 4 comments: 1 critical, 3 praiseworthy
Dr. David P. Scaer, -Chairman, Systematic Theology- CTS-FW -Editor of CTQ -Faculty Marshal	Paul T. McCain, General. Editor Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions	J. Michael Reu The Augsburg Confession, 1930	Pres. Franz Pieper Lehre und Wehre, vol. 67 (1921), pgs 297-301
“The old synodical conference Triglotta, … provides a single English translation for both the Latin and German versions of the Lutheran Confessions that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to appreciate either one. It cannot really be used for serious study, though it has served nobly in our circles for years.”	“ … the Concordia Triglotta was produced in 1921, an edition that used only the texts of the Confessions as they are contained either in the German BOC of 1580 or the Latin BOC of 1584, both being the "received texts" of historic Lutheranism. … For these reasons, the editors of Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions … [followed] the same decision made by editors of the Concordia Triglotta.”	“In their Book of Concord in three languages (Latin, Ger­man, and English) [Triglotta], edited by Dau and Bente 1921, the Synodical Conference, particularly the Missouri Synod, has given the church a great work of lasting value”  “... the Synodical Conference, particularly the Missouri Synod, has given the church a g	Just read the Confessions, check their Scripture evidence and convince yourself that a more than adequate Scriptural proof is made. … As for the exterior features of the Concordia Triglotta, our Concordia Publishing House has particularly succeeded this time in providing a suitable dress for the "golden Concordia”.
Logia 09-1 (2000), p. 62	Cyberbrethren blog Oct. 13, 2006	(The Augsburg Confession, p. 205)	Quoted at this blog post.

J. Michael Reu

Hmmm, it seems that Dr. David Scaer is more of an opponent of the old (German) Missouri Synod than the noted Professor Johann Michael Reu of the opposing Iowa Synod (later ALC).  Having read from Reu's book from 1930 that is still sold by CPH (The Augsburg Confession, ebook only), I wonder that he is a greater scholar of the Lutheran Confessions than Dr. David Scaer.  And Prof. Reu called the Triglotta (p. 205) 

"a great work of lasting value".

My "apologies" to Dr. Scaer, but I have been able to seriously study all three languages of the Apology, Art. IV in the Concordia Triglotta, especially on its teaching of "sola fide".  —  Is it any wonder why the Triglotta fell into disuse?… when its teachers not only abandoned it, but also practically condemned anyone who would use it for "serious study"?  How quickly the Tappert edition killed almost all use of the Concordia Triglotta.  (What greater enemy of old Missouri is there than today's LC-MS teachers?)
      I would suggest to Dr. Scaer that he should seriously study Article IV of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession in the Concordia Triglotta (in whatever language) and then explain to his students and to all alumni that Rev. Richard John Neuhaus abandoned the heart of Christianity when he left Lutheranism to become a Roman Catholic priest.

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      Enough of today's LC-MS!  How happy I have been to:

• re-discover J. Michael Reu's scholarly work on the Augsburg Confession and his great tribute to the Concordia Triglotta
• study in the "Triglot" what the Lutheran Confessions laid down in writing for its defense of "SOLA fide"
• discover and glory in these two great treasures…

Sola fide!

The Lutheran Shibboleth!

Concordia Triglotta 
now in Google Books in 2017!

Prof. Klug's warning -> LC-MS & Sasse: "How come?", against Kloha, Okamoto, etc. Part 2

(continued from previous Part 1)

Prof. Eugene Klug
(† 2003)

Yet there have been warnings from within the LC-MS in recent decades, that Kloha and Okamoto are on the wrong path.  Prof. Kloha is well aware of these warnings, and yet is laughing in the face of them.  One of the better testimonies came from Prof. Eugene Klug, (see previous post) who more than once warned his LC-MS against the errors of Hermann Sasse.  In 1967, he judged against Sasse's writing "Luther and the Word of God" (published for the 450th anniversary for the Reformation) saying (see page 410, footnote 197):

"How come?"– why a book (of Sasse) sponsored by The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is tilted in critical judgment of past theological giants of the church. (Springfielder, vol 31, 1967/1968, pg 45)

And in 1985 (30 years ago) in the same Concordia Journal, the journal that is publishing Okamoto (see Part 1), a major essay by Prof. Klug was published.  I am presenting this entire essay below., even though it is lengthy, for it clearly is a slap in the face of today's LC-MS.  Although I do not quite agree with all of Klug's praise of Hermann Sasse, yet the thrust of this essay to uphold the inerrancy/infallibility of Holy Scripture is a wonderful boost for the Christian faith:

(Highlighting added; hyperlinks must be opened in a new tab or window)

[2019-01-16: direct link to above document here]

      The dear Klug said a mouthful in this essay!  He did not shrink back from the charge of "Fundamentalism" by Hermann Sasse against the old Missouri Synod (Pieper, Engelder, etc).  This same charge is echoed by so many in today's LC-MS, but their charge falls on Prof. Eugene Klug... and Walther, the father of the Missouri Synod.

      Another encouraging part of this essay is that there were faithful Lutherans in East Germany, in Leipzig, behind the so-called "Iron Curtain" before it came down.  Dr. Gottfried Wachler is given honorable mention and his article is available to view and read -- see footnote # 5 in the essay above, or here.  –  Imagine that!... faithful Lutherans behind the "Iron Curtain", while in St. Louis today they call the Bible a "plastic text".  I think I would rather have lived with those Lutherans behind the Iron Curtain than with those faith-destroyers in St. Louis!

The most perilous tribulation is when there is no tribulation.  –  Martin Luther

In the next post, I will continue my translation of Hermann Fick's Martyrs, Part 23.

Pieper: Ohio's great error (old ELCA) – on Justification

I have read somewhere of interest to find out exactly what the Ohio and Iowa Synods taught (old American Lutheran synods)...   and what were their errors?  The Ohio Synod of Columbus, Ohio was one of several American Lutheran synods that merged into the ALC synod in 1930, and then into today's ELCA synod.  It should be noted that the Ohio Synod was one of the original members of the Synodical Conference in 1872 (with the Missouri Synod) even though the Wikipedia article on the Synodical Conference does not mention it.  And these Ohio and Iowa synods were identified by Professor Theodore Graebner in 1938 as the ones that had the right Doctrine of Objective Justification, along with his LC-MS.
But unfortunately the Ohio Synod broke away from the Synodical Conference because they held to doctrinal errors, chiefly the Doctrines of Justification and Election.  Franz Pieper spoke of the great error of the Ohio Synod in the pages of Lehre und Wehre in June 1889 (vol. 35, pgs 195 - 196) [2019-10-21 fixed link].  Here is what he reported:

Ohio. It is a great deception that the Ohioians and all synergists still speak of justification by grace through faith for Christ's sake, by which they cover themselves and alas! also inexperienced Christians with their utter waste of the central doctrine of Christianity. For the origin of faith is not merely at the mercy of God, but also by the good behavior of man as the Ohioians teach, faith itself includes a human achievement or a work of man in himself, and justified "through faith" then means  justified in so far as through a partial work of man.  Of a justification by grace in the biblical sense, there can no longer be talk of.  As Luther says, "Justification, which is done by grace, that suffers no work or no merit."   "And St. Paul thrusts" (with the "by grace" of Romans 3:24) "to the ground both the Pelagians with all their merits, and the Sophists with their few or small merits".  (The Bondage Of The Will. Dresden edition, page 300) [see section 149 (CXLIX) here].  So this subject has been discussed by all sides in the last fight.  But now there is something new to report.  For some weeks the Ohioians therefore fight expressly against the doctrine of justification as heresy, which they confessed at the first meeting of the Synodical Conference in 1872 with the whole Synodical Conference.  (Report of the first meeting of the Synodical Conference, 1872, page 43 ff.)  Will this possibly help to open the eyes of at least some of those under the unfortunate seduction of the spirit of error?

This is the error that modern Lutherans (such as Prof. T. Graebner in 1939 and today's Prof. David Scaer) want to ignore and overlook.  I have given the following quote many times before, but I want to rub your nose in it, today's LC-MS.  Here is what your Professor Theodore Graebner said in 1939:

One of the statements in the A.L.C. declaration has been criticized as hiding a denial of objective justification – when this doctrine is accepted by the American Lutheran Church (because it has accepted our Brief Statement) and when both Ohio and Iowa Synods for generations past have taught correctly this same doctrine.  As long ago as 1872 and as recently as 1938 the public doctrine in the areas here placed under suspicion has been the plain doctrine of Scripture as we teach it ourselves.

All the women and homosexual pastors in today's ELCA (and NALC) cannot roar louder against the true Doctrine of Justification than Professor Theodore Graebner did in this quote.  Theodore Graebner, the great Editor of the Lutheran Witness and chief popular spokesman for the LC-MS in 1938, set himself on a mountain top, way above C.F.W. Walther, way above Franz Pieper, and roared:

The fathers of the old (German) Missouri Synod were wrong!  ......  I am the one who knows the Doctrine of Justification!  I am the one who knows the central article of Christianity!  Listen to me!

And unfortunately today's LC-MS did.

Not so for the old (German) Missouri Synod.  From the perspective of old Missouri, the Ohio Synod was already beginning to return to the Roman Catholic (Sophist) doctrine and would not be so surprised (but would be saddened) that the descendants of the Ohio and Iowa Synods, the ELCA, would sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Roman church.  The old (German) Missouri Synod believed the Bible.  Do you?

If by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. Romans 11:6