Fundament 21: The “Final Word”

      This concludes from Part 20 (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 summarizes this wonderful treatise which was written a few years after his Christliche Dogmatik, his major life's work and the textbooks for generations of Missouri Synod pastors.  Some may be surprised by how much was written on the "Means of Grace" or that the Inspiration of Scripture was at the end instead of at the beginning.  But these issues do not matter so much, for whatever and whenever Pieper spoke on “das Fundament”, the Foundations of the Christian faith, he spoke to the heart of Christianity.

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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.

Das Fundament des christlichen Glaubens.

The Foundation of the Christian Faith.

[by President Franz Pieper, Concordia Seminary; concluded from Part 20 - page 286]

Final word.

For the sake of clarity, we summarize in a few sentences the result of the above presentation of the foundation of the Christian faith. The widespread opinion that the doctrinal difference which exists between the Lutheran Church and the sects surrounding it does not concern the foundation of the Christian faith is a mistaken one. Although we confess with Luther, with our Symbols [page 287] 

and with the old Lutheran theologians, that even in misbelieving fellowships there are dear children of God. But this is not because the false doctrines by which they differ from the Lutheran Church do not concern the foundation of the Christian faith, but because these children of God, in contradiction with the official doctrine of their fellowships, have either never believed these errors for their person, or have nevertheless got rid of them [their errors] in mental distress. With regard to the individual fellowships whose position on the foundation of the Christian faith we examined, the following emerged: 

The Unitarian fellowships [Part 2], which officially reject the Holy Trinity, the Deity of Christ and the vicarious satisfaction (satisfactio vicaria), thus also reject the foundation of the Christian faith, because the object or foundation of the Christian faith is the forgiveness of sins which Christ, true God, born of the Father in eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin, has acquired through his vicarious satisfaction. We have no right to think of Unitarians as Christians. This also applies to all lodges which confess the Unitarian religion. 

The Papists [Part 3, 4, 5], who according to their official teaching make the attainment of justification and salvation dependent on the observance of God's and the Church's commandments, thus abandon the foundation of the Christian faith, because through the works of the Law no man is justified before God and attains salvation. [Gal. 2:16] The fact that there are Christians under the Papacy is due to the fact that they let their trust in their works go in the temptations and distress of death and base their confidence on the grace of God solely on Christ's merit, i.e. so convert their hearts to the realm of Lutheranism.

The Calvinist Reformed [Part 6], who, according to their official doctrine, allow the saving grace of God and Christ's merit to refer only to a part of humanity, thus abandon the foundation of the Christian faith, because the Christian faith, for its creation and preservation, presupposes universal grace (gratia universalis) and Christ's merit for all men. The fact that there are Christians among the Calvinist Reformed comes from the fact that they have either never absorbed the poison of particular grace, or yet, in the trials and distress of death, they seize the words of Scripture which read of general grace and thus convert into the realm of Lutheranism. Calvinist Reformed theologians, as we saw, admit this themselves [see Schneckenburger]. 

The Arminian Reformed and the synergistic Lutherans [Parts 7, 8, 9; see Erwin Kolb essay], who, according to their official teaching, claim that the attainment of grace and salvation is not only by God's grace, but also by man's self-determination, by his various [page 288] behavior or on his lesser guilt in comparison with other men, thus abandon the foundation of the Christian faith, because the Christian faith has the quality that it relies solely on grace (the sola gratia). The fact that there are Christians among the Arminian Reformed and the synergistic Lutherans comes only from the fact that they either do not believe in their hearts and before God themselves what they assert in their dispute before men, or that they forget their different behavior and their allegedly lesser guilt in temptation and distress of death and trust in the sola gratia, i.e. they thus convert into the realm of Lutheranism. 

All enthusiasts or Schwärmer [Luther’s “swarmers”] [Parts 10-18] — from Carlstadt, Zwingli and Calvin to Hodge, Shedd and Böhl — who, according to their official teaching, separate the saving revelation and effect of the Holy Spirit from the external Word of the Gospel (and the means of grace in general), thus leave the foundation of the Christian faith, because the assumed immediate revelation and effect of the Holy Spirit does not exist at all and they are therefore forced to make the sinking sand of natural efforts, moods and feelings the foundation of their confidence in God's grace. The fact that there are Christians among the enthusiasts comes from the fact that, in contradiction with their official teaching among the terrores conscientiae, they seize in faith an external Word of the Gospel which promises the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ, and thus for their person practice Lutheranism. [ref. blog “but Lutherans die well.”]

All deniers of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures [Parts 19, 20], that is to say, all those who do not let the writings of the Apostles and Prophets be God's own infallible Word, thus overturn the foundation of Christian faith. This is so certain, as surely as Christ testifies, that all Christians until the end of the world will believe in Him through the Apostles' Word which we have in their writings, and Christ's apostles teach that the whole Christian church is built up on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets in all and every one of its members until the Last Day. If a denier of the infallible divine authority of the Scriptures still finds faith in John 3:16 and 1 Joh. 1:7, this is an inconsistency that can turn into perishable consequence at any time. 

If the Church of the Reformation, the Lutheran Church, admitted that the errors of the sects discussed above were justified in the Church, as allegedly not concerning the foundation of the faith, it would commit a betrayal of the Christian Church. It would make the foundation waver on which it itself stands in faith, and thus at the same time abandon the foundation on which the faith of the children of God in the erring fellowships is also based. May the Church of the Reformation remember the vocation that God has given her in this world!                         F. P. [Franz Pieper]

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      One may also note in this treatise that Pieper did not mention either the “Real Presence” in the Lord's Supper or “infant Baptism”, two well-known distinguishing aspects of Lutheranism over against the Reformed.  But he did not have to do this because he covered the greater issue of faith in the Word, faith in the forgiveness of sins, and the crucial importance of faith in all the uses of the "Means of Grace".  Lutheran practice is Christian practice because it is based on faith in the Word – "das Fundament des christlichen Glaubens".

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” — Psalm 11:3

Amen. Amen.