1850 - Walther: Romanizing, Part 2 of 2

      This concludes from Part 1, a translation of Walther's 1850 address to the Synod convention, an essay which targeted the encroaching tendency toward Romanizing in Lutheranism. — Now Walther speaks directly on what the Romanizing tendency consists of.  This 1850 Synod Address was the trumpet call against a false defense of Lutheranism used by over-zealous Lutheran leaders. For those who may have a difficult time sifting out the actual points at issue, there is no better authority than… Prof. C.F.W. Walther.  For my part, the essay helps bring into sharper focus the doctrine of Church and the Office of the Ministry.  We conclude his 1850 address.

= = = = = =  Translation of 1850 "Synodalrede", by BTL using DeepL; all hyperlinks, emphases except underlining are mine.  = = = = = =

[Concluded from Part 1]

…and in the best opinion, to cleanse our Church from the newly accumulated rubble and refuse, they throw out jewels of holy doctrines and orders, for the achievement of which our fathers once joyfully risked their goods and blood. In contrast to the idea of the One Holy Christian Church and the syncretism of our days, they are unmistakably returning more and more to the concept of the Church as a visible, well-organized external institution. [as Theodore Graebner did in 1950; translated.] Contrary to the contempt for the means of grace and all that is objectively given, they are again approaching the doctrine of the power of the sacraments ex opere operato. In contrast to (page 119) the contempt for the old, and against the rejection of all foreign authority and established church institutions, they are now seeking to unite consciences to some human statutes and church orders. In contrast to the degradation of the preaching ministry, they are fighting against the important and just rights of the spiritual priesthood of all Christians as illusions of spiritually proud enthusiasts, and deny the so-called laity themselves the right to choose their pastors, and the right to vote at synods and in the church courts. In this contrast, they also derive the office of the ministry from the power of ordination by pastors who declare it to be a divine order; make the office and ministry of those who are to be mere stewards of God's mysteries a special status preferred to the lay priesthood; grant to the pastors of the Gospel a power and dominion de jure divino [according to divine right] even in those things which are neither commanded nor forbidden in God's Word; thus transform the Christocracy of the congregation of the saints and the chosen, of the free, who are the Mother of us all, of Jerusalem above, into the aristocracy of a Papal State, and finally make the power of the Word and the Sacrament dependent on the office of the one who handles these means of grace.

Although this latter direction has been evident for some time, both in the Lutheran Church in Germany and in America, it has remained without influence on our Synod until recently. In recent times, however, as you know, we have finally come to a serious conflict from two sides. The time when the members of the Synod could be silent spectators of the struggle that this direction has provoked is therefore over. The call to fight for or against has also reached us. —

If it cannot of course be my purpose here to prove the error of that direction, I cannot refrain from pointing out a few things which, to the small extent that I know, we should never lose sight of in our joint decision on this matter. [Quoted in Hochstetter, Geschichte…, p. 204]

The first one is this: This is not at all adiaphora, a set of measures, customs, ceremonies and constitutional questions, on which Christian wisdom decides; it is rather doctrine, that is, something that is not ours but God's – God's name and glory itself; something of which forgiving and giving up is not in our power for the sake of love and peace; something of which a little jot is more valuable than the whole world with all its wisdom and all its treasures; that on which the true Church alone is recognized; for her supreme treasure, in which all her other treasures are contained; for the pound entrusted to her, on whose faithful use and preservation she will one day have to give a strict account to God; for the purity of that heavenly seed on whose purity depends the purity of faith and life, all the light of souls, all the consolation of conscience and the hope of eternal life. Here, then, the old proverb is valid: "Amicus usque ad aras" — the friend up to the altars — ; yes, especially now, the apostolic exhortation is valid for us: ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump’, Gal. 5:9, and what Luther writes about this in the following words: ‘Just as in philosophy, if one misses a little at the beginning, in the end it becomes a very great and immoderate error: so in (page 120) theology it is also true that a small error should pervert and falsify the whole Christian doctrine. For the doctrine is so precisely circumscribed that one can neither add to it nor take anything away from it without much noticeable damage. Therefore the doctrine should be like a fine band of gold, and there should be no crack or break in it; for as soon as such a ring gains a crack or break, it is no longer whole. All the articles of our Christian faith are one, and one is all; and where one lets one go, all the others will surely fall away in time, for they all cling to one another and belong together.’ So far Luther. [Quoted in Walther’s German book on Church and Ministry, p. 118; Walch1, 8, 2653, 109.]

But is that so, — and who among us would deny it? — then it follows secondly that, although the Church does not reject those who err out of weakness, in a particular Church of orthodoxy it is impossible for different doctrines to be treated as equals, and thus also within our synod congregations on those points. If a Church wished to permit this, she would thereby abandon herself; she would no longer be able to apply to herself the Word of the Apostle that the Church is a pillar and foundation of truth; she would thus place herself in the ranks of those [Prussian] Union churches whose characteristic feature is the equal justification of truth and error in their midst, in spite of all the hypocritical protestations which these mishmash churches raise against this accusation as an unfounded one. Above all now, therefore, the apostolic Word applies to us: "But I exhort you, dear brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak with one voice, and do not let there be divisions among you, but hold fast to one another in one sense and in one opinion."1 Cor. 1:10.  Hence our Luther writes quite correctly: “Life can be sinful and unjust, yes, unfortunately it is all too unjust; but the doctrine must be pure and certain without sin. Therefore nothing iss to be preached in the church, but only the certain, pure and certain Word of God. Where that is lacking, it is no longer the church.” (Opp. Hal. Tom. XVII, 1686).

The third thing that I feel compelled to point out is that the doctrines that we are now dealing with do not belong to those which have not yet been discussed in the Church, but rather to those which have not only already been clearly and distinctly expounded by our most enlightened scholars of God in their private writings in accordance with the Word of God, but of which our whole Church has already, in its public symbols, made a firm common confession before the whole world. Yes, these are doctrines around which the great struggle of the Reformation era was actually once fought and in which the character of our Church is actually reflected. Therefore, if we want to give way on these points, we must consider whether we are not really renouncing our Church; whether we are not ceasing to be faithful servants and members of it; whether we are not breaking our dear oath taken on the Confessions of our Church and admitting to the enemies of our Church that the struggle of our fathers three hundred years ago was at least in part an illegal one, a struggle for error and against the truth.

The fourth thing I allow myself to remember here is finally this: although the points at issue do not concern fundamental articles of the Christian faith, and we are therefore certainly all far from being unkindly and sacrilegiously branding as heretics those who err in them (page 121); yet they are so closely connected with the most important doctrines, with the fundamental articles of our Christian faith, that the deviations in view of them, according to their conclusions, finally and necessarily overturn the foundation for the faith.

Now then, my dearest men and brethren, let us go to work in the name of the Lord. May the Word of God, this unicus judex omnium controversiarum, [“sole judge of all disputes”] be our only judge; may the Church of God be our witness; may the glory of God and the salvation of the redeemed be our only purpose; the awareness of the nearness of God, before whom our inner being is revealed, intimate, uncolored brotherly love, unfeigned humility and untiring patience, the governors of all our words; the promise of God to hear the prayer for light and wisdom and to allow the sincere to succeed, our consolation; but far away, ah, far away be all bitterness and self-opinionatedness: then Jesus Christ, the invisible head of His Church, will be among us in grace and will gloriously lead our work, which is not ours but His, out of the midst of us and will soon transform our present groaning in temptation into joyful psalms of praise and thanksgiving over His help.

Indeed, “according to the law and to the testimony,” [Isaiah 8:20] that is our watchword; whatever happens then, with this solution everyone must win: for to be conquered by the Word of God — is to win. Amen.

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      Along with Walther's battle against Romanizing Lutherans, we also hear in this address the beginnings of his struggle against Pastor Loehe and the later Iowa Synod on "The False Arguments for the Modern Theory of Open Questions" for which he wrote a series of essays published in Lehre in Wehre in 1868 (English translations available here and here). — More about the 1850 Synod Address will be highlighted when I publish Chapter 7 of Hochstetter's wonderful History in upcoming weeks.