This continues from Part 2 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a translation of Franz Pieper's essay on the foundation of the Christian faith ("Das Fundament des christlichen Glaubens"). — Pieper now begins the transition from Unitarianism and Lodges to the Papacy and the Roman Church. A true Lutheran comparison of these bodies is quite different from the world's judgment.
As mentioned in the introduction, the Missouri Synod valued Pieper's extended serialized essay so much, they had it assembled and put into a small book – Concordia Publishing House, 1925. The cover is shown at right and the book is available for viewing on Archive.org here. This segment begins on page 4.
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Text preparation and translation by BackToLuther using DeepL, Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, Yandex Translate. All bold text is Pieper's emphasis. All highlighting, red text, and most text in square brackets [ ] is mine.
The Foundation of the Christian Faith.
The Papacy and the Foundation of the Christian Faith.
Rome, unlike the Unitarian fellowships, confesses the Triune God. Rome teaches the eternal Godhead of the Son and the Holy Spirit. It teaches the incarnation of the Son of God and also speaks of the fact that this incarnation was necessary and for the good of mankind. But Rome denies in the most decisive way the fruit of the incarnation of the Son of God. It denies that by the grace of God alone, without works of our own, by relying on Christ's merit alone, we human beings attain forgiveness of sins and salvation. And Rome not only denies this, but also pronounces the curse on all those who do not also want to be justified and saved by the works of the law, but only by trusting in God's mercy in Christ. Thus, in the twelfth canon of the sixth session of the Council of Trent, it says: “If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but trust in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that this trust alone is that whereby we are justified, let him be anathema”. [On Justification, Canon XII] And in the twentieth [page 76] canon it is explicitly documented with an anathema that the Gospel is a mere and perfect promise of eternal life, without the condition of keeping the commandments of God and the commandments of the Church. As certain as the Gospel, that is, the message of the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ's satisfactio vicaria, without the works of law, is the object or foundation of the Christian faith, so certain it is that the Pope's Church denies the foundation of the Christian faith and not only denies it, but also expressly places it under the curse.
Rome's official religion is completely identical in essence with the religion of the Unitarians or Lodges. Rome and the Unitarians belong to one class, to the class of the religions of works. The difference is limited to the outer form of the works, which are prescribed on both sides as a means of attaining salvation. Rome urges the works prescribed by the Roman Church, that is, by the Pope. The Lodges urge the works in which, supposedly by virtue of the light of human reason, all men, the Christian, the Jew, the Mohammedan, the Buddhist, the Parse, the Confucian, etc., agree. The papacy and the lodges are known to fight each other. If the Knights of Columbus occasionally fraternized with the lodges in recent years, they were sharply rebuked by the superiors. But deceivingly. The Knights of Columbus felt an inner kinship. The battle between the Papacy and the Lodges is merely a game of the devil's jugglery. The activity in both camps is aimed at keeping mankind, which was lost but was redeemed by Christ, away from the foundation of the Christian faith, namely from Christ, the Saviour crucified for the sins of the world, and to lure those who already stand on this foundation away from it.
In the battle between Rome and the Lodges, the devil is always the winner. In every case — whichever side wins — he wins a comrade of eternal damnation. If the lodges win a soul from Rome for their religion, “in which all men agree”, then the soul remains lost. For of the universal religion of the lodges God says in his word: “Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people”. (Isaiah 60:2) If Rome wins a soul from the lodges for the Roman doctrine of works, only an outer re-quartering occurs in the kingdom of spiritual darkness. The soul remains equally lost. For so God judges in His Word about the Roman doctrine of works: "You have lost Christ, whom you would do justly by the law, and have fallen from grace" (Gal. 5:4) and: "Those who deal with the works of the law are under the curse". (Gal. 3:10)
Nevertheless, we wish to draw a distinction between Rome and [page 77] the Lodges, so we must say that Rome's insolence and blasphemy, however, surpasses that of the lodges. The Lodges appear sufficiently brash and blasphemous against Christianity, so brash and blasphemous that we are rightly surprised when a Christian who is introduced to the facts does not very soon recognize the dramatic contrast between Christianity and the Lodge religion. Christ commands his Church to go with his (Christ's) Gospel among all nations, “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me”, Christ. (Acts 26:18) According to the Lodge religion this is not necessary. According to them, Christian, Jew, Mohammedan, Brahmin, etc. “unite around one common altar,” as we've already heard. The blasphemy is also gross, which lies in the fact that the Lodges misuse the Bible and the ways of speaking of the Bible to conceal their hostility towards Christ. This is a Lodge prayer according to the Manual of the Lodge by A. G. Mackey, p.15:
“Most holy and glorious Lord God, the great Architect of the Universe, the Giver of all good gifts and graces! Thou hast promised that where two or three are gathered in Thy name, Thou wilt be in the midst of them and bless them. In Thy name we assemble, most humbly beseeching Thee to bless us in all our undertakings, that we may know and serve Thee aright, and that all our actions may tend to Thy glory and to our advancement in knowledge and virtue. And we beseech Thee, O Lord God, to bless our present assembling and to illuminate our minds that we may walk in the light of Thy countenance and, when the trials of our probationary state are over, be admitted into the temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Amen.”
Those are almost all clear Bible words. But they are abused blasphemously. What is said about Christ's presence in those who are gathered in his name – in Christ's name – is applied to the lodge assemblies in which Christ's name and Christian religion are not merely excluded by statute, but forbidden. They defy Christ in His capacity as judge of the world. While Christ, referring to the Universal Judgment, says: “Whoever confesses me before men, I will confess him before my heavenly Father; but whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my heavenly Father,” (Matt.10:32-33) Freemasons have the impudence to prescribe to those of their members who want to be Christians: “They are not permitted to introduce them [namely their opinions of Christ] into the lodge or to connect their truth or falsehood with the truth of Masonry.” (Mackey, Lexicon of Freemasonry, p.404.) That's truly outrageous enough! But this [page 78] outrage is outdone by the Papacy.
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Some British television programs have depicted the rituals of Freemasonry. Some of these have been surprisingly critical of this secret organization and the effects on its members. — The Wikipedia article on "Freemasonry" is an exhibit of what Pieper speaks about above – a supposed antagonism between the Roman Church and the Lodge. But Pieper's exposure of this secret organization is the most damning of all, clearly exposing the Lodge's blasphemous use of Scripture. You would think that this was the epitome of anti-Christian teaching, but… it isn't. In the next Part 4, we are brought to the abyss.
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