Martyrs 22f: Diaz- Lutheran, mortal enemy; sin against Holy Ghost; "Halloween"; Chapter 5

[2019-10-24: fixed broken links to Google Books]
      This continues from Part 22e (TOC in Part 1a, Diaz TOC in Part 22a) publishing the book of Hermann Fick on the martyrs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.  —  Part 22f presents Fick's Chapter 5. —  Alfonso Diaz said it well to his brother Juan:

...the name of Lutheran would be the mortal enemy.

Peter Malvenda had early said that Diaz appeared as a monster when he came as a Lutheran.  That pretty much sums up the world's view of true Lutherans today... here and now... as the Savior said:

Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. – Matt. 10:22; Mark 13:13; Luke 21:17
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. – John 15:18

This is one of the so-called "hard sayings" of Jesus, and I remember it well as I came back to my old faith.  But all true Christians know in their heart that the world hates them because of their faith.  And we see Alfonso Diaz as the voice of the world to his brother – the Spanish Lutheran, Juan Diaz.  —  Following the confession of Juan Diaz to his papist brother Alfonso, it makes me laugh even more at today's LC-MS (their "here and now"), whose

1. seminary provost calls the Bible a "plastic text" and 
2. CPH General Editor says that "Vatican II brought substantive changes to the Pope's Church.  (of their books Study Bible and The Lutheran Difference)

Yes, today's LC-MS, you are a laughing-stock, a spectacle, to true Christians.

Some highlighting added hyperlinks added for reference.

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The Martyrs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church

by C.J. Hermann Fick

(tr. by BackToLuther)

XXII.(f)

Juan Diaz.

Chapter 5

Juan’s valiant courage of faith.

While they now carried on a friendly brotherly conversation with each other, Alfonso told his brother that he had come to bring him back again into the bosom of the holy Mother, the Church. He pointed out the great dangers which threatened him if he would persist in his teaching.  He represented to him how he would be reviled and hated by the most distinguished and respected men in the world, for all of whom the name of Lutheran would be a mortal enemy.  He also showed him how he thus violated all of his family and would plunge himself into all evils, prison, misery and excommunication, yes! death by fire or sword would receive.  And still many more such things were stated in order to make the heart of his brother waver.

But our dear martyr did not waver.  Although it brought sorrow to his heart that his brother judged so wrongly by making human danger and tyranny higher than the confession of the pure doctrine, he however kindly replied, "Dear brother! [page 164] I have not accepted that doctrine because of ignorance or of its own carnal conceit, but after serious examination and careful consideration.  And since I have explored its beginning and progress with diligence from the right fountain of divine Scripture, I freely confess publicly that it is truly the unanimous and eternally constant doctrine of all the holy Prophets and Apostles.  Therefore, I cannot reject such doctrine which I have recognised particularly by God's grace without great shame and vice.  So also through God’s grace a worldly danger is not to deter me from my Christian plans.  

"Consider, dear brother, if it befits a wise and intelligent man that he escapes transient misfortune and wants on the other hand to rush to eternal destruction.  So, indeed, is the sin against the Holy Ghost nothing other than when one denies the recognized truth and knowingly goes astray.  And this sin will never more be forgiven, neither here nor indeed in eternity.  That's why I have not minor, but great and important causes to persist in my resolution and confession.

"For you, dear brother, I wish with all my heart that you would make up your mind to use so much time and energy for the study of divine truth, as you have done so far in human affairs and quarrels.  And since I know how great is the mercy of our Heavenly Father, I do not doubt that God will also reveal to you the treasures of his heavenly truth that even you yourself, if you only would undertake such diligent work, could well recognize God's will from the Holy Scriptures.

"And would to God, dear brother, that I want to supply you such knowledge, be it also with my own blood!  For that, as the Son of God himself testifies, is truly eternal life, namely the living God, and He has sent Jesus Christ to surely recognize this.  So it is to be regretted in truth that people in such a highly important matter are so negligent and wicked, that they do not consider such wonderful pronouncements of God, which are kept for all men clear and sincere from heaven by the voice of the Eternal Majesty, so even not to consider nor take to heart, indeed to defiantly despise. [page 165]

"Will you now consider this matter without prejudice, so you will indeed find no other reason why we now are condemned by the wicked, yes! almost every day be consigned to death than this, that we have put all our hope in the living God, without which no man can be saved, and set nothing on man’s part.  Therefore, dear brother, learn first how our cause is constituted, then you will judge for yourself that it should not be abandoned for the sake of any earthly danger.  Truly, I for my part am determined by the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God, and certain that I can never more be deterred from the doctrine which I have recognized and have confessed."

However such brotherly images made no impression on the heart of Alfonso, who had nothing to do with the saving truth.  Because now he saw that Juan could not be shaken from his confession by fear of dangers, he tried to make him waver by the promise of great temporal advantages.  He promised he would leave him an annual income of 500 ducats, which he had previously drawn from the Roman Church, if Juan would go with him to Rome.  But God's grace had already so firmly held the heart of the dear Confessor that even this fiery arrow of the villain could not penetrate it.  He answered the tempter:

"Dear brother! I'm not as greedy as you might think.  Because if my sense stood to attain large goods and honours, then I would have to furnish my life completely different.  I esteem this for the highest honor, that I have recognized the right, pure and heavenly doctrine which the Lord has bestowed on me from his gratuitous goodness.  So also is my conscience, that knows of no vice to be guilty of, so very precious and valued than all the treasures in the world.

"Therefore, my dear brother, keep your income for yourself.  It's not to be discarded if you have it with a pious, God-fearing heart and hand.  However, if one does not do this, I do not know what use a lot of money and property are when one needs help and consolation most urgently in the end.  Therefore, dear brother, let us seek with all our heart that we collect the right treasures of true godliness in heaven [page 166] and study God's Word diligently and earnestly.  Because it does not leave those who have it, rather it relieves and mitigates the present cross that we bear in this world so full of tribulation, and also accompanies us into Heaven with its rich consolation."

= = = = = = = = = = = =   Cont'd in Part 22g   = = = = = = = = = = = =

      Why do you suppose there is such a time of year called "Halloween"?  I believe it is based on the popularization instigated by papists to obscure the celebration of Luther's Reformation – it is "celebrated" the same day as Reformation Day, October 31.  And the terrors, and horrors that ones attempt to portray and play with are actually their portrayal of the horrific Lutherans, monsters one and all.  So, Lutherans, do you now want to celebrate "Halloween" with them?

      Diaz echoes Luther, Walther, and Pieper in this chapter, as elsewhere, when he teaches

1. Salvation is only from God, nothing on man's part (Objective)
2. As salvation has been won for all men, so are God's pronouncements. (Universal)

... i.e. UOJ, Universal, Objective Justification.  —  In the next Part 22g is Chapter 6.

Rome–4: Halloween, reminder of Pope; simple Gospel; Knights of the saddest figure

      This concludes from Part 3 (Table of Contents in Part 1) a translation of Franz Pieper's essay on the failure of the evangelical churches of Germany to fight against the Papacy in his day.
      The terms that Pieper uses against the Roman papal church remind one of the "entertainment" of the season popularly known as "Halloween".  But as Christians, we should look on the worldly notions of horror as not just "make-believe" or imaginary, but very real when we see the real atrocities done by the Chief Enemy of Christianity, the Pope.  So when I see all the "scary" things the world shoves in my face to "celebrate" Halloween, I rather see the Pope behind the mask.

Translation by BTL – Underlining from original  – Highlighting is mine – Hyperlinks added for reference.

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The False Stance of Present-Day Evangelical Christianity Against Rome.

by Franz Pieper

Doctrine and Defense, (Lehre und Wehre), 1896, vol 42, pgs 289-297
--------   concluding from Part 3  ---------

[pg 295]

The writer in the Saxon Church and School Journal noted that the central press, particularly the Berlin Germania, leads a challenging language; however from the evangelical side was "avoided a long time ago with scrupulous care everything that would cause the least offense to the standing of the Catholic sister church".  What a pathetic state of affairs!  The Pope's disciples open their big mouth wide, and praise their anti-Christian master and his soul murdering doctrines and institutions, and blaspheme Christ, and the Holy Gospel.  But Christ's disciples will not open their mouths against these anti-Christian demonstrations to praise their dear Savior and His saving Gospel!  And why?  One wants to not cause the slightest "offense" to the “Catholic sister church”!   Is therefore the Christian church giving offense when it confesses the truth against committed enemies and blasphemers of Christ and his gospel?  If they thereby give offense, so that is the offense which it should give in the world; the offense of which the apostle says, "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness," 1 Cor. 1:23; the offense, of which it stands written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed”, Rom. 9:33; the offense of which the Lord says: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." Matt. 10:34.  If you want to have absolute outer peace on earth, you must renounce your membership in the Christian church, since the Christian church is not for the concealment, but the confession of the Gospel in the world.  But the confession of the Gospel will always be exposed to the hostility of the world and the false church. —  Still another reason for the neglect of the struggle against Rome is stated by a writer in the Leipzig General Evangelical Lutheran Church Newspaper.  He says the following against Prof. Dr. Fricke, who struck a "slightly sharp tone" against the Roman Church at this year's meeting of the Gustavus Adolphus Union: "Who actually profits from such battle speeches?  But probably initially the Roman Church, which, as a glimpse of the ultramontane press amply proves, with pleasure widely occurs such occurrences to show that not Catholics, but Evangelicals are the disturbers of the peace, that therefore the Catholics had full rights to search out their great arsenal for not-so-clean weapons to inflict all possible damage on the Evangelicals."  Translated into simple German this means: "Let us avoid the struggle against Rome, because in such

[pg 296]

battles we yet only come out as losers."  Has the writer considered what a disgrace he is doing to the Evangelical Church?  On our side, the Evangelical side, (we speak in the name of all those who are truly evangelical) is the divine truth; on the side of the Pope and those under him is the lie.  We have God for us, while the Papists have God against them.  And we should avoid now doing battle, because we have to worry about yet only a defeat in the same!  Christ has therefore sat at the right hand of God, given his church the Gospel, promised her mouth and wisdom, as well as victory, so that they are dismayed and ask of the enemies of Christ and his Gospel for peace and good weather!  Truly, the voice of that writer in the Leipzig General Evangelical Lutheran Church Newspaper is not the voice of the evangelical church.  The truly evangelical church knows Rome far, far superior to this.  Rome comes out the loser in the battle every time when this Evangelical church fights it as she should fight, that is, if she leads a real doctrinal battle against Rome, when she opposes the Roman lies at all points with clear, certain truths of Scripture.  She is as much stronger than Rome as God is stronger than the devil and all accomplices of the devil.  Rome may open all its arsenals and all projectiles which are at its disposal, also shoot at us the most dirty things.  It can do nothing against us.  We have the arsenal of the clear, infallible Word of God, by which we break all the weapons of the enemy, throw him out of all his positions and completely beat down the line.  "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God”, 2 Cor. 10:4-5.  O, if today's so-called evangelical Christianity would yet again reflect on the invincible power of the simple Gospel of Christ!  With the simple Gospel of Christ we overcome sin and death, as well as the papacy and all satanic powers.  Dr. Hölscher from Leipzig quite rightly said, when giving the annual report at the meeting of the Gustavus Adolphus Union: "The only thing we have to oppose Rome is the Gospel of Christ.  A congregation collected by the Gospel is insurmountable.  Therefore fear you not, little flock!"

That most spokesmen of the present-day evangelical Christendom take such an unsatisfactory, yes, miserable stand against Rome, is because they do not live in the evangelical truth and are not certain of it.  

Indeed, they have through subversion of the divine authority the Holy Scriptures, so far as it is in them, taken the true weapon against Rome out of the hands of evangelical Christendom.  They have devoted themselves to “science”, which is just as incapable against the infernal power of Rome

[pg 297]

like all other human thoughts and instruments of power.  Would that it be known that modern theology has been entangled in a pitiful position on quite the wrong track especially against Rome.  One sees that they indeed neither teach Christianity nor can fight back its enemies.  They are Knights of the saddest figure, to the delight of the Pope and the great sorrow and dishonor of the Evangelical church.  Would that they remember from whence they fell!  If they return to the heritage of the Reformation, so would they soon take the right firm and certain stance in opposition to Rome and win one victory after another against it.

— Franz Pieper

= = = = = = = =  End of Essay  = = = = = = = =

I had private correspondence from a German layman some time ago noting that I wrote with "a passion".  Would to God that I had just a small portion of the passion that President/Prof. Franz Pieper had for the "simple Gospel of Christ"!

Dr. Wilhelm Hölscher

     Germany was not without some voices for the truth of the Gospel, and Pieper is happy to quote from them.  In particular Dr. Wilhelm Hölscher stands out as he spoke the following words:

"The only thing we have to oppose Rome is the Gospel of Christ.  A congregation collected by the Gospel is insurmountable.  Therefore fear you not, little flock!"

May his name be remembered in Germany today!  

Which was worse for you, Dresden Germany?(capital of Saxony)

(image sources Wikipedia left, right)

Priest/Prince Max preaching
in your royal chapel:
"Evangelicals: convert to Pope!"

Your bombing in 1945 which
"destroyed almost all of the ancient center of the city"

or

In the light of the true Gospel uncovered again by Martin Luther, the true horror is revealed – the Roman Papacy in your midst going nearly unchecked.  Germany, there is your real horror... not your defeats in 2 World Wars, but you rather gave away God's gift to you, your own Lutheran Reformation.

"O, if today's so-called evangelical Christianity would yet again reflect on the invincible power of the simple Gospel of Christ!"
                        — President Franz Pieper, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri

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

Jerusalem's Destruction… in Old Missouri's hymnbook? (Reformation or Halloween?) Part 1 of 2

Destruction of Jerusalem
70 A.D.

      Although there is a Wikipedia article on the history of the Destruction of Jerusalem which gives much information, yet it does not affirm that it is indeed the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy, Luke 19:41-47, Luke 21:20-24. What the world largely does not know, including most people within the LC-MS and the other former members of the Synodical Conference, is that this history was not only printed in many of the popular hymnals, but it was also read in the worship services on the 10th Sunday after Trinity. This day in the Church Year most recently was August 25, 2019, next year – Aug. 19, 2020.

      I would not be surprised if Walther himself had this "Destruction of Jerusalem" included in his Hymnal.  He may have obtained it from old orthodox hymnals from Germany, but this is speculation on my part.  It was printed in the final pages in many editions.  Perhaps LCMS Senior Assistant to the President Dr. Jon Vieker could answer this question.
      As far as I can determine, this history has not been included in any of the English translated hymnbooks after the transition from German to English.  Neither was it included in the most recent translation of Walther’s Hymnal (CPH 2012) by Matthew Carver.
      There is much talk and commemoration of the misfortunes of the Jews in more recent times. Although these misfortunes were not foretold by Christ, the Destruction of Jerusalem was foretold in Holy Scripture – it is an historical event agreed upon by virtually all modern historians. And this history was not only not avoided by Old (German) Missouri, it was given a full reading in a regular worship service once every year… but never by the (New English) Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. 

      For additional details on non-spiritual matters of this history, see Wikipedia Siege of Jerusalem and the First Jewish-Roman War. There are a few maps on these Wikipedia sites, and there are several more helpful maps available at this site, although their accuracy in detail is unknown.

      This blog post is providing the full digitized German text from the original German hymnbooks for German speaking readers:



     Not only was this Description ("Beschreibung") in the hymnbook, an essay explaining and giving additional details on its history was published in Der Lutheraner, vol. 43 (August 1887) by Prof. Gottlieb Schaller. just a few months before he passed away in November.  For German speaking readers, the original digitized text is provided below:

      In the concluding Part 2, more information will be provided along with separate English translations of these two publications.  It will then present a side-by-side synchronized presentation that gives the fullest picture of how the Old (German) Missouri Synod took their instruction for repentance seriously. —  It will be presented on Reformation Day, a day that is more commonly "celebrated" as Halloween – a day "celebrated" for its images of terror and horror.  Can you believe that a story of a mother eating her child was read in church?... in the next Part 2.

Luther's Uncertainty Monster: “honoring” Halloween

      Continuing my project of presenting the full text of Franz Pieper's original German edition of his Christliche Dogmatik (volume 2b is now mostly polished), I ran across Pieper's discussion on Luther's phrase monstrum incertitudinis, or the "monster of uncertainty".  This can be found in Volume 2b, at this location. This can also be found in the English edition, page 445.
      Pastor Martin Noland, a well known figure in today's LC-MS, disputes Pieper's writing and turns to a Jewish philosopher to find his ultimate "certainty".  But here is Pieper's teaching based solely on Holy Scripture – the following is my own translation from Pieper's German (emphasis in original):

In the Preliminary Survey it has already been shown that faith of its object, namely, the grace of God, is certain, and indeed is divinely certain, because the grace of God is the object of faith and the seizing of this object is a divine effect in the human heart. The monstrum incertitudinis [monster of uncertainty] can only teach that faith should take its object, i.e. the Gospel, and set in its place the Gospel and Law or the whole of Scripture, or that faith is not a divine action, but a human self-determination, human self-decision, moral act, proper human behavior, etc.  In fact, doubts can be found next to faith which remain in the hearts of Christians.  But this doubt arises from the flesh that still clings to Christians, and is not to be praised with the Papists and synergists as a virtue, but rather as a sin to punish and to fight, 1 John 5:10. "He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." (footnote reference: Chemnitz, Loci, De iustif., p. 270 f.)

We see in this that Pieper also draws on the writing of another Martin, Martin Chemnitz.  So Pastor Noland is not only refuting Franz Pieper but also Martin Chemnitz, the chief author of the Formula of Concord.
      My translation varies only in minor ways from the English edition, but is perhaps more forceful... as Pieper is at his best in presenting the truly Lutheran teaching of the Certainty of Salvation.  And the source of our certainty?... it is outside of us, it is "objective"... it is based entirely on God's certain promise that He had written down so that we might believe... and be certain.  Do you like to be called a liar?......  neither does God.
      This is how I console myself during the worldly "celebration"of Halloween... for I know who the real monster is, ... the real monster is far more deadly than any dreamed up monster of this world.  And 1 John 5:10 is the perfect Bible verse to recite to oneself to destroy this monster!  No amount of assurance that Pastor Noland dreams about can fight the true monster of uncertainty, rather God's Word is our sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17).

Reformation Day, 2015 (498th Anniversary); LC-MS, brown paper bags & Halloween

I grew up in a devout LC-MS family.  And how did we celebrate Reformation Day?  My mother took brown paper grocery bags and cut out holes for our eyes, nose and mouth and we went "trick or treat"ing in the evening.  I don't blame my mother for instilling Halloween instead of the Luther's Reformation in our young minds... I blame today's LC-MS.

So how can true Lutherans recognize that the struggle of the Church of the Reformation is no different than in Luther's day?  Leaders of the Roman Catholic church remind us of this regularly.  Here is another reminder among my other reminders (here, here and here).  As the reports of the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" (JDDJ) spread, I recall reading (probably in Christian News), a news item that I had copied and taped to several places in my home office:

Asked by a reporter whether there was anything in the official statement contrary to the Council of Trent (The Roman Catholic Church's 16th-century response to the Reformation),  Cardinal Cassidy said,

'Absolutely not,

otherwise how could we do it?  We cannot do something contrary to an ecumenical council.  There's nothing there that the Council of Trent condemns.'

      The LC-MS is attempting to put itself at the head of the celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation to be held 2 years from now, but I think their teachers should all take brown paper grocery bags, cut out holes for their eyes, nose and mouth and parade through the streets of St. Louis... for the LC-MS is no longer the "Synodical Conference", no longer the old (German) Missouri Synod, no longer a church of the Reformation as it was.

But for true Lutherans, they should purchase and read the true account of the Council of Trent, the one by the chief author of the Formula of Concord, Martin Chemnitz: Examination of the Council of Trent.  Here you will read what His Eminence, Edward Cassidy, AC – President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity declared to be just as official today as it was when it was held in the Reformation century.  And so I taped a copy of the above news item to the spine of my copy of this book.

Yes, I think brown paper bags over the heads of the LC-MS teachers would be appropriate for their celebration of the Reformation, just as I did 50+ years ago today.

Piepkorn 3: “Lutherans only third”; “ambivalence”; “confessionalism”?; damnamus of Luther, Walther, Pieper and…

[2025-04-21: updated links]

This continues from the previous Part 2 (& Part 1) where I defend against the most recognized name among Concordia Seminary's 40+ professors who were censured in 1973 – Arthur Carl Piepkorn († 1973).
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      Martin Luther condemned Duke George (as reported by Pastor C. J. Hermann Fick):

“Thus was fulfilled what he [Luther] had foretold: ‘I see that Duke George does not cease to persecute the Word of God, the preaching of that word, and the poor Lutherans …’”

I am one of those “poor Lutherans”. — In Philip James Secker’s essay at the CTS-FW 2009 “Annual Symposium on the Lutheran Confessions” p. 4, he proclaimed that (as also repeated by Prof. Erik Herrmann here at 16:32):

“Piepkorn’s most famous saying is: ‘We are Catholic Christians first, Western Catholics second, and Lutherans only third.’”

==>> I am one of Piepkorn's “third-rate Lutherans”.

“8th Wonder of the World”

This effrontery to Lutheranism that Arthur Carl Piepkorn plainly states is confirmed yet again in his writing in 1967 at the 450th anniversary of the Reformation where he refers to the annual celebration on October 31 of the same as (Plekon, Selected Writings, vol. 1 p. 89)

“the annual ambivalence with which a Lutheran theologian normally faces the last day of October.”

“Ambivalence”?  And Piepkorn called himself a “Lutheran theologian”?  Maybe today's LC-MS should call October 31 their “Ambivalence Day” instead of “Reformation Day”, or maybe just... Halloween?

      Arthur Carl Piepkorn was officially ordered in 1973 to relinquish his post as a teacher at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. But then the seminary Board of Control wanted, by “honorably retiring” him, to soften this judgment.  It was reported (F. Danker, No Room In the Brotherhood, 1977, p. 179, Selected Writings, vol. 1, pp. 300-301 [2025-04-21: updated links]; confirmed here) that Piepkorn said:

“It's an insult. They have no theological competence. How then can they retire me honorably? What does that say for my theology? I want to be retired dishonorably.” — Arthur Carl Piepkorn 

      Piepkorn's followers will continue to justify Piepkorn by his so-called “confessionalism”.  But here is what Franz Pieper reports of C.F.W. Walther that will serve as an exact reply to the “confessionalism” of Arthur Carl Piepkorn (see here, Part 3b):

“Therefore Walther emphatically rejected the suggestion that only that is ‘Lutheran Church doctrine’ upon which our Church expresses herself in her Symbols.  No, every true Bible doctrine is Lutheran Church doctrine, even if it is not Lutheran Symbolical doctrine.”

As Martin Luther uttered his damnamus: “Damned is that love at the expense of doctrine”, so I say on the full authority of C.F.W. Walther:

Damned is that “confessionalism” at the expense of Holy Scripture!

      While working on this blog, I have also been translating C.F.W. Walther's much quoted 1886 “Foreword” to Lehre und Wehre and hope to publish it.  Walther lets loose on Germany's “scientific theologians” and blurts out a damnamus against them (p. 6; German text):

“Woe to him, who wants to be reckoned among the theologians and, on the contrary, thinks he must argue as such, above all, that science should remain fully free!”

May Walther's condemnation now apply to... Arthur Carl Piepkorn. — I have not read of any LC-MS seminary teacher or Synod official publicly condemning the memory of Piepkorn.  And so on Walther's full authority, I will do it now. I will fulfill Arthur Carl Piepkorn's (reported) wish to be “retired dishonorably”...  I, as a “poor Lutheran”, as “only a third-rate Lutheran”, as a layman with “no theological competence”:

Piepkorn & Company destroyed the Christian faith of my youth!  He is to be charged with the “crimen laesae majestatis divinae”, because as Pieper elaborates “he actually repudiates and stands above God.” As Luther condemned the rage of Duke George against the “poor Lutherans”, so I do now the same for the rage of Arthur Carl Piepkorn: 

I, BackToLuther, 

a son of the Missouri Synod, 

condemn 

all Christian memory of

Arthur Carl Piepkorn.

May he be remembered with revulsion!  — In Walther's essay is quoted a letter of Martin Luther that apparently has not been published in English translation.  And so I now will add one more post to my series on Arthur Carl Piepkorn, to “retire” him with my translation of this important letter... in the concluding Part 4.   (Part 1, Part 2)

Pieper & Luther: No public ministry now? (WELS) (Part 3c)

This post continues from Part 3b where began my examination of the WELS in relation to the sad state of the Public Ministry of external Christendom.  (See Table of Contents on Part 1 for ease of reference.)  In this Part 3c, I continue this review of the WELS by speaking to it directly on the Doctrine of Justification – it is a matter of spiritual "life and death".

- - - - - - - - - - -

    Thank God, dear WELS, that you still mention this doctrine!... that some of your teachers work to defend this doctrine!  But just because some false teachers caricature UOJ (Kokomo Statements, David Hartman, Larry Darby, "GJ", etc, etc), does not mean one should shrink back and try to "protect" the Gospel against any "misunderstandings" and stop "pushing the envelope".  I recall very clearly a phone call I had with David Hartman (of Kokomo, Indiana) when I was seeking a "conservative" Lutheran congregation.  At that point I was returning to my Christian faith and becoming grounded by Walther on Justification.  But when Mr. Hartman began to refute UOJ, I became horrified.  I was shaking...  my spiritual life depended on this doctrine – UOJ.  Here was a "conservative" Lutheran rejecting the heart of the Gospel.  There is no horror that Hollywood can portray (Halloween is finally over this year) that comes close to the horror of this.  I believe now that David Hartman was the main author of the well known "Kokomo Statements".  My reaction to Mr. Hartman was -- horror!  My reaction to Larry Darby's unbelief after repeated admonishments regarding the truth of Universal, Objective Justification was "Go to hell, Larry Darby!"  Your WELS committee's reaction to David Hartman (and the Pohlmans) was quite different from mine:

"...our impression of the appellants is that they are earnest seekers after God's truth as expressed in His Word." (See Zarling essay "Stand In Awe of Justification", page 16)

As Luther was not happy that Lyra and Burgensis were not angry enough at the blasphemies of the Jews (see paragraph 69 here), so I, BackToLuther, am not happy that you (WELS) are not angry at the blasphemies of the Kokomo heresy and David Hartman.  Your panel's "hope that a change of heart on the part of the appellants may still be possible" is weak because there is a reason for the Binding Key (John 20:23, Matt. 6:15) – it is an evangelical one... to bring them back to the true Gospel.  Indeed, they "will die in their sins" (John 8:24) unless they turn to the Truth.

But then the Kokomo appellants made a charge (same charge that Larry Darby's wife made during the heat of the "Larry Darby situation"), a charge that should worry the WELS if it is true (Zarling essay, page 16):

What struck the [WELS] panel was a statement repeated several times by the appellants. They said that before Pastor Papenfuss and Circuit-pastor A. Siggelkow had explained the doctrine of justification, they had never been taught objective justification in that way. 

Could it be, dear WELS, that you may have been sucked in just a bit by the disastrous storm in today's Christianity that was caused by...

today's (English) LC-MS?

...  a storm that has left modern Christians to fend for themselves?... a storm that has caused untold misery and doubt with it's relentless questioning of the pure Gospel and of the truth of the Bible itself?... a storm, like the Superstorm Sandy, that leaves its victims (i.e. weak Christians like me) casting about for their spiritual lives?  This spiritual "Superstorm" was brewing as Pieper was delivering his essay "The Open Heaven"...  this "Superstorm" made landfall when Franz Pieper died in 1931.  (Theodore Graebner stormed out of the room...)

Yes, I will say it, the awesome breadth of Superstorm Sandy, 1500 miles across, is as nothing compared to the devastation and terrible landscape after the fall of the old (German) Missouri Synod!  Yes, I will say to you, today's WELS, that God granted you a wonderful gift by frustrating Walther's attempt to consolidate all the members of the Synodical Conference into one entity.  How was this a gift?  By keeping you (and the ELS) separated from the hellish Superstorm caused by the new (English) LC-MS! (Mark Braun's book does an excellent job of pointing this out.)

But to you, today's LC-MS, I am your "Rip Van Winkle", for God has woke me up from a deadly slumber by faith, a faith that I do not deserve, for I see who the true heroes of the faith are, and they are the ones who truly give All Glory to God Alone.  It is the Lutheran Church from above that Alone gives All Glory to God!

I will leave the WELS for now with the title of Pastor Mark G. Zarling's title for his essay:

Stand In Awe of Justification – The Diamond Among the Jewels of Divine Revelation 

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In Part 4 of this series, I will close my case that we have reached that time when the Public Ministry has become empty.