Hist13: Chp 9—Buffalo Colloquy; Luther's "sh*t ban"; ordination not a divine command

      This continues from Part 12 (Table of Contents in Part 3), a series presenting an English translation of Pastor Christian Hochstetter's 1885 496-page book entitled (abbreviated) The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884. — I have read about the Buffalo Colloquy before but the accounts seemed a little difficult to understand on the exact points at issue.  Hochstetter's History is largely a first-hand account of the proceedings from one who was won over, not by Walther or the Missouri Synod, but by God's Word, the Lutheran Confessions, and Martin Luther. — We see again how important the right doctrine of the Ministry is, for it concerns the fundamental article of the Christian faith. And if one may think this reading is a little dry, then see the quote of Luther that Walther uses, the term "shit ban". Really?… in a religious writing?  Read on.
Some quotes from Chapter 9: (256-278)
258: "the Pope, the head of the sectarians, being in the church, has his seat in the temple of God, as Luther in his writing against Hans Wurst proves"
259: Grabau's false teaching: "The Church does not have the highest and last judgment or the keys directly, but only insofar as it has the office of the Ministry that guides the Confessions, that is, that the highest and last judgment is given only to those in the holy ministry."
261: Pastors "are not special, privileged priests… The public preaching Ministry, however, is not transferred by the congregation or church, but by God only through the congregation or church"
263: "If, otherwise, the doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone is to be right, then, as Luther says, our faith and sacrament need not stand on the (administering) person, whether pious or evil, consecrated or unconsecrated, called or crept in, the devil or his mother."
264: "If the Word of God were no longer powerful and sufficient in itself to work the saving faith, then our salvation would be bound to a human person… a fundamental article of the Christian faith"
265: Luther on the Ban: "Thus a Christian congregation is not the maidservant of the official, nor the jailor of the bishop… the congregation shall be judge and mistress." [Luther was a "Missourian".]
265: von Rohr on the Ban: "our ordinance now comes into effect, namely, that the ministry has jurisdiction" — Walther: "your doctrine is strictly against the symbols and Luther."
266: "When we say that the congregation has to judge, we (here) understand congregations not with exclusion but with inclusion of the pastor."
267: "But a ban that is imposed with exclusion of the hearers is according to Luther a sh… ban [Scheisbann (WA), or Scheißbann (W2): "shit ban"], i.e. not the ban that Matt. 18 is talking about… Luther says: “The congregation, in dealing with one of its members who is under the ban, should be sure of the reason it thinks him to be deserving of excommunication."
268: Missouri: "In matters of doctrine and conscience, the majority of votes does not apply, but only the Word of God."
270: "church discipline cannot and must not begin with every sin"
272: "it follows from the Word of the Lord, Luke 10:16, how precisely the authority of his servants [the pastors] is limited."
273: Luther: "Pastors must not pretend that the people are under them."
274: Luther: "If they [bishops] also want to apply force, and compel us to do so, we must not obey, nor consent to it, but rather die."
274: "Pastor Grabau had declared ordination for a commanded divine ordinance, which was under divine and apostolic command. [The same as LCMS Prof. David Scaer.] … the Smalcald Articles say [Tr 70]: 'The ordination (ordinatio) was nothing else (nil nisi) than such a ratification.' which is repeated by Chemnitz and the other pure teachers" [Scaer refuted by Confessions]
Images of some men appearing in Chapter 9: (256-278)

           Walther    ———     Schwan   ———    Sihler  ———  von Rohr  ——  P. Brand ——  Hochstetter

See full size version at CHI website here.

A somewhat humorous cartoon drawing of this Colloquy was made by a Pastor Ruhland and was published by Concordia Historical Institute in "Pieces of Our Past No.50" March 28, 2014. Although the Missourians, on the left, are clearly represented as raptor-like (Walther like an eagle), it is not clear to me what the representation of the Buffalo colloquents was. By the list of participants from Hochstetter on p. 271 and in the Christian Cyclopedia, the drawing, although depicting all the the main colloquents, omits a number of delegates.

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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation.  All hyperlinks, highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine. All internal hyperlinks are active in this embedded window, external links should be opened in a new tab or window.

      One must realize while reading especially this chapter 9 dealing with Pastor Grabau and the Buffalo Synod that "the writer of these lines", Hochstetter himself, was a party to his own History.  We will see that this was not the only place where he participated in his own History, we see him again in Chapter 10. — Carl S. Meyer makes very limited use of Hochstetter in his Moving Frontiers "history", mentioning him (p. 271) only for the Predestinarian Controversy.  Meyer evidently considered Hochstetter a "little historian". — After the break below, the customary fine print version. — In the next Part 14, Chapter 10.

Hist12–Chp 8: Walther-Wyneken to Germany; reproved, response

[2020-07-27: added links at bottom to text of Wyneken's response to Leipzig Conference]
      This continues from Part 11 (Table of Contents in Part 3), a series presenting an English translation of Pastor Christian Hochstetter's 1885 496-page book entitled (abbreviated) The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884. — We see in this chapter that Old Missouri fully understood the spiritual situation in Germany at the time of the emigration and in later decades.  Walther knew of the remnant in Germany and heaped praise and thanks onto those who supported the American Lutherans.  And he "paid" for their support by clearly laying out for Germany what Lutheranism is, especially in and among the congregations. Unfortunately, long before Germany's great military and political fall of the 20th century, it largely rejected the counsel of… C. F. W. Walther. This chapter contains much of the content of Walther's (and Wyneken's) Open Letter to the church in Germany.  It is sad that in hindsight, Germany in many respects did not heed this clear plea to return to its roots.  The Walther-Wyneken trip to Germany and the early synodical conventions were settings where the true Lutheran doctrines were beginning to be strongly defended… as they were in the Reformation century.

Some quotes from Chapter 8: (217-256)

220: "the Saxon brothers had issued a publication, the Der Lutheraner, and this had become the means of bringing together the scattered, faithful Lutheran pastors"
223: To the Germans: "Come over, see and examine for yourselves, and then judge whether you do not like this active, joyful life, founded on the Word of God and flowing from it"
224: "we will not degrade ourselves to be servants of men"
225: Walther "In our country the pastor does not rule over the people, nor the people over the pastor, but both are ruled by God's Word."
233: "papistical mischief begins with the praise of indifferent ceremonies" [Piepkorn, "Gottesdienst"]
235: "they also asserted that the power to believe lay in the Word of God, not in the person of the pastor; therefore, even when the Word is read, the Word can exercise its power." [Cp. to LCMS teaching.]
235: "The testimony given against Hoefling also refuted the accusation… [that] the Missourians wanted to reject the divine order of the ministerial office." [A common accusation by Scaer and Romanizing Lutherans.]
240: German advice for Grabau, that "he must therefore continue the fight which he waged against Prussian liberalism in America against the Missourians!" [Cp. to later charges that Missourians were crypto-Calvinists!]
241: Wyneken's response to German conferences against Missouri: "'Only those congregations which in their conscience could no longer bear it — have we accepted,' the Missouri Synod responded"
245: "the mere scholarship which most German scholars practice does not lead to the inner certainty nor to the fraternal unity and agreement"
246: "Prof. Walther had taken note of the sad paralysis of the Protestant consciousness in Germany during his journey"
250: "Pastor Grabau and his followers hereby imposed the ban on the entire Missouri Synod"
251: "the congregation… did not place their property at the feet of the Buffalo Synod"
253: "It was a great misery; at last the temptation taught us to remember the Word."

256: Missouri Synod's "educational institutions flourished, its pastors numbered 300; its writings were read by many; even those synods which had previously been caught up in syncretism and unionism listened to the voice of the Missouri Synod and approached it."

Images of some men appearing in Chapter 8: (217-256)

      Loehe  ——  Wucherer —— Guericke  —— Harless —— Hoefling —  Muenchmeyer — Ahlfeld  –— Kahnis   —   Gersdorf

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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation.  All hyperlinks, highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine. All internal hyperlinks are active in this embedded window, external links should be opened in a new tab or window.

      I found this chapter to be the perfect answer to all the modern Lutheran historians, LC-MS or otherwise, who claim that Old Missouri did not fully understand the spiritual situation in 19th century Germany. Even the high court preacher Dr. von Harless "had little hope for a prosperous development of the Lutheran Church in Germany." (p. 233). One example of Old Missouri's full understanding of the spiritual situation in Germany is demonstrated by Pastor Muenchmeyer.  All accounts of him, whether Christian Cyclopedia, Concordia Cyclopedia or Wikipedia, offer no hint of his theological weaknesses, only his strengths.
Yet we see in Hochstetter's History the very real weakness that Muenchmeyer had in the doctrine of the Church (p. 238).  He published essays which explicitly differed from, and even criticized, the Lutheran Confessions.
      One of the greatest benefits of Pres. Matthew Harrison's At Home in the House of My Fathers (CPH 2011) is the portion translating Walther's own report of his trip with Wyneken to Germany as covered in pages 47-106. I am still studying it for Walther's rich content and further history. We read in it more of how Germany supported the Missouri Synod's growth before it later rejected and repudiated it. — After the break below, further comments, then the fine print version. — In the next Part 13, Chapter 9.

LCMS-Harrison vs. Walther on "Church and Ministry" (Excursus)

      This post is an excursus to the previous post "Hist11: Chapter 7" of Hochstetter's History.  The depth that the LCMS has fallen to Romanizing becomes even more apparent from this History and has caused me to produce a separate blog post instead of an add-on to the previous post. This matter is not a minor doctrinal issue for Lutherans, but about "far-reaching doctrinal differences".

Reversing Walther's teaching
by Matthew Harrison

      Hochstetter's chapter 7 hits home against President Matthew Harrison and his LC-MS today. While Harrison praises Walther in his editorial comments in his re-translation (and mis-translation) of Walther's Kirche und Amt, (Church & Office, CPH 2012), he reinterprets the Lutheran Confessions and misunderstands Christ's words in Matthew 18:17-20.

Synecdoche: figure of speech
      Harrison makes maximum use of the term "Church" as a synecdoche, a figure of speech, in order to confuse the term's various meanings, thereby making even Holy Scripture uncertain.  It is a clever way of achieving his aims, making it seem like he is following rather than overturning Walther's teaching. This is indeed poor praise of Walther, for Walther clearly teaches what Harrison says he did not.  And Hochstetter is another witness against Harrison, along with J.T. Mueller whose better translation, Church and Ministry, in most cases is the correct meaning.  I may quibble with some of Mueller's paraphrasing, but not his general understanding of Walther. Unfortunately for Harrison, Hochstetter confirms Walther's true teaching, and Hochstetter's work was personally approved by Walther, and so Harrison cannot easily separate Walther from his later true followers, those who properly understood the rights of congregations or the local church.  Too bad for Harrison, we meet a true "Missourian" in Hochstetter, a label that Harrison explicitly derides in his later books, his books that came after his At Home in the House of my Fathers.

      The latest textbook of doctrine to come out of the LCMS, Samuel Nafzger's Confessing the Gospel (CPH 2018) which was personally approved by Harrison, even states (p. 1013): 

“Walther’s understanding of the doctrine of the office of the public ministry may be summarized in the following points: … (7) God brings men into the pastoral office through the call of the congregation, to which the power of the keys is given.”

But Harrison attempts, with his editorializing, to claim that Walther taught that the term "church", the entity empowered to call a pastor, does not mean just the local congregation.  He says (p. 212):

“I do not believe the Missouri Synod's decision to 'call' clergy to its district or national work–a practice that was ratified by convention in the early 1960s–is fundamentally at odds with Walther's views.”

How ironic it is that a textbook of doctrine with Harrison's support, which can lay little claim to orthodoxy, would affirm Walther's teaching on this very point that Harrison explicitly denies.  President Harrison essentially openly identifies with those who staged the 1974 Walkout from Concordia Seminary! And doubly ironic is the fact that Nafzger's textbook quotes J.T. Mueller's translation, not Harrison's translation, in the subsections dealing with "The Church" and "The Ministry"!  How embarrassing for Harrison that his great work is not even mentioned anywhere in Nafzger's textbooks. No, not once.

Gemeine and Gemeinde

      Harrison also plays fast and loose with the German terms Gemeine and Gemeinde and tries to use the change in spelling from the archaic Gemeine to the more recent spelling Gemeinde, claiming it can also be used as "Church" in the wider sense.  But not only does J.T. Mueller translate it properly to "congregation", not "church", but even the opponents of the Missouri Synod who translated Luther's writing on "The Keys" in the American Edition of Luther's Works, volume 40, p. 371) translated Luther's "Gemeine" as "congregation", not "church" (ref. WA 30II, 502, StL 19, 950, 94-95).  Imagine that!  Even Missouri's opponents, non-"Missourians", from the Romanizing old Augustana Synod (#18) knew better than the current President of the LC-MS, Matthew Harrison.
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      But enough!  Just read the Brief Statement of 1932 (English, German) and get a clear, concise declaration of the Lutheran Doctrine of the Church and the Ministry, and avoid reading Harrison's translation until one is firmly grounded in the truth of God's Word.

      I had not fully realized the depth to which Harrison has yielded to the Romanizing tendency, but now I see clearly how Harrison is not just against J.T. Mueller, but also against Franz Pieper, Christian Hochstetter, C.F.W. Walther, the Lutheran Confessions, Martin Luther, and… most importantly, against Holy Scripture – Matt. 18:17-20.  Harrison improperly uses J. T. Mueller as his scapegoat, while wanting to appear in support of Walther.  But the worst part is his attempt to use the Lutheran Confessions against themselves.  Hochstetter gives us the true picture of Walther's teaching – Walther said so.  

      Harrison's mis-translation of Walther reveals another reason why Dr. Fred Kramer's translation of Hochstetter has not been published by CPH. It is because Kramer's translation fully agrees with Walther's (and J.T. Mueller's, Pieper's, the Brief Statement's) meaning on the doctrines of Church and Ministry.  Harrison is now putting the last nail in the coffin of the Old German Missouri Synod within his LC-MS.

      No, no, President Harrison, as Walther says, your "zeal leads (you) beyond Lutheranism,", here and now.  It remains to be seen whether there are true Lutherans left in the congregations of the LC-MS, whether they can see through the subterfuge, and recognize the wolf when they see it.  Currently there is one book review on Amazon that is aware of  this ('Meh', by Micah D. Schmidt).

      Any of the laity not well versed in the doctrines of the Church and the Office of Ministry, as I have been in the past, would do well to get J.T. Mueller's translation first, Print-on-Demand or used [2024-02-26: but now available to borrow on Internet Archive], to get Walther's true meaning, the true Lutheran meaning.  Only after one is well grounded and ready to have their faith surreptitiously attacked should one study Harrison's subterfuge of a translation.  Then one can understand just how far today's LC-MS has gone backward, to being like the Walkout crowd of 1974.

===>> To President Harrison: did Prof. Otto F. Stahlke (1906-1992), whom you seemed to praise in your At Home book (p. 782: "he would read the Lutheran dogmaticians with me in Latin"), take your position on "Church and Ministry" or did he still confess with Walther (and Pieper) on these, i.e. for the God-given rights of the congregation, and against a call of pastors/church workers by a larger group than a congregation as divine right?  Would he have also negated Dr. Fred Kramer's translation on this? [Hint: read Stahlke's 1962 Springfielder essay on "Apostolic Succession".]  If not, then don't your criticisms of Mueller also apply to your mentor Prof. Otto Stahlke?

===>> To Concordia Publishing House: Why have you quit selling the hardback edition of J.T. Mueller's Church and Ministry book?  I see by the Wayback Machine you were selling it in 2016… could it be that you are rather promoting Harrison's translation instead?  Perhaps you could also explain why Mueller's translation had to wait 25 years to be published, in 1987, after it was completed in 1962?  … Really? a delay of 25 years? Who pushed for its publication… CHI Director August Suelflow? — In the next blog post, Part 12, Chapter 8, of Hochstetter's History.

Hist11–Chp 7: Loehe & Grabau: "beyond Lutheranism"

      This continues from Part 10 (Table of Contents in Part 3), a series presenting an English translation of Pastor Christian Hochstetter's 1885 496-page book entitled (abbreviated) The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884. — Again we meet with a hotly contested chapter, one that forcefully defends Walther's renewal of the Lutheran doctrines of Church and Ministry.  I have confessed before my lack of understanding of these doctrines and the battles surrounding them.  Two writings that may well be of profit before reading this chapter would be (1) Walther's 1850 Synodical Address that defended against Romanizing; and (2) Franz Pieper's series "C.F.W. Walther as Theologian", part 6 on the Church and part 7 on the Ministry. — When I was returning to my Christian faith, I had to know just exactly what the Gospel was.  I found it in the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification.  Only then could I begin to understand “Church and Ministry”.  Hochstetter's History has brought into focus not just the doctrines, but also the opposing pastors involved in the controversies, and exactly what their errors were.  And God granted to the Lutheran Church the theologian C.F.W. Walther, in America, to unravel the tangled web of false doctrine.
Some quotes from Chapter 7: (179-217)

Grabau's Pastoral Letter (Hirtenbrief):

181: "Pastor J. A. A. Grabau had been twice imprisoned in Prussia…"

182: "Buffalo ministerium worked hard to… chain the trustees to the Buffalo Synodical Court by court order"

183: "Pastor Loehe also wished for a mutual accommodation [with Grabau]."

185: "Pastor Grabau again called one such person whom the congregation [Kirchengemeine] raises up, an uncalled one!"

186: Pastor Loeber's reply to Grabau: "Christian freedom was restricted, … more was attributed to the office of the ministry than was due to it, and thus the spiritual priesthood of the congregations was neglected."

187: "the Word can also be powerful outside of the public office, as we know from Scripture and experience"

192: "A shameful tyranny of conscience must arise if, in doubtful cases, all members of the congregation are to place their conscience into the pastor's conscience… This is how the papacy came into being."

Church and Ministry:

205: "The differences between these two or between the real Old Lutherans and today's neo-Lutheran Romanists are much deeper, they are far-reaching doctrinal differences!"

208: "The great decisive struggle of the Reformation, which our Church fought against the papacy in the 16th century, was already about these doctrines."

209-210: "It would also be contrary to the basic doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone if officials were allowed to present themselves as mediators between God and the believers."

212: "Walther writes… 'the newer theologians are horrified. "We are to administer our office by citizens and farmers?" they say contemptuously.'"

212: "the expression “übertragen” [transferred]… such Latin words are used by M. Chemnitz, Polykarp Leyser, Hülsemann and others"
215-216: "Pastor Loehe taught that the office first creates the church, only those who possess this office can transfer it to others.… It is not, therefore, as Pastor Loehe said, that the pastoral office is always first and that this is what creates the congregation."

215: "The most important thing here is the fact that the entire New Testament knows no difference between church and congregation ['Kirche und Gemeinde']… So the Smalcald Articles [Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, § 67] confess, which know nothing of an organized total church, with which one wants to establish spiritual authority over the congregations today."

Images of some men appearing in Chapter 7: (179-217)

       Loehe   ——    Grabau   ——    Loeber   ——    Brohm   ——    Krause  ——  Hochstetter —— Wyneken —— Hoefling

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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation.  All hyperlinks, highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine. All internal hyperlinks are active in this embedded window, external links should be opened in a new tab or window.

going, going… (gone?)

In the next Part 12 is Chapter 8. — To preface what follows, one cannot purchase the original hardback edition of J.T. Mueller's translation Church and Ministry from CPH after about 2016.  One can only find that they do offer a "Print On Demand" version by cleverness because there is no image of the book presented when searching their site. They have also retained an eBook version. One gets the distinct impression that the LCMS is ridding itself of vestiges of Old Missouri, i.e. the "Missourians". Along with this situation is the fact that even this book was not published in 1962 when Mueller had the manuscript finished, but 25 years later, in 1987! Could it be that CPH and the LCMS has been trying to bury Mueller's translation not just today, but ever since 1962? This matter is far too important to put at the end of this post, so I am adding an "Excursus" of polemical comments against today's LCMS in the next post.  Then follows Part 12, Chapter 8.— After the break below follows the customary fine print version of the above chapter.

Hist10: Chp 6—Missouri’s first 2 years; Der Lutheraner; education & missions; “This is what the Lord has done!”

      This continues from Part 9 (Table of Contents in Part 3), a series presenting an English translation of Pastor Christian Hochstetter's 1885 496-page book entitled (abbreviated) The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884. — The reawakening of true Lutheranism in America – that phrase fits this chapter.  

Some quotes from Chapter 6: (146-179)

147: In America: "in none of the synods existing at that time was Lutheranism a spiritual power that would have shaped and determined church practice… the peace of the cemetery"
148: "But the trumpet voice, which sounded so clearly that many sincere hearts rejoiced but others were frightened, was the testimony of Der Lutheraner. Its motto to this day is: 'God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall to eternity endure.'"
150: On the opposing synods: "Their constitutions did not aim at a situation where the Lutheran faith was supposed to hold the congregation together…, where the synod itself was only an advisory body to the individual congregations, where the synod itself was formed by the representatives of the congregations, was dependent on them, and the synod officials in turn were dependent on the synod. For this reason, the synods were at times dictatorial and wanted to play the role of legislator at the synod, as if the synod had the congregations at its feet"
152: Question from Germany: "…how it is possible in our synod to arouse such a lively interest in a church doctrinal paper, while in Germany one wins many readers only for religious entertainment publications."
154: "The time had come and the hour had come that Lutheran Zion [not Forster’s “Zion”] should be built in this western part of the world in this 19th century."
155: "such hierarchical pastors see their synod as a kind of life insurance policy and job placement company"
156: "the present Synodical Constitution it says therefore: “The Synod is only an advisory body…"
160: "the American Lutheran Church [at that time] is dominated… even by enmity against the true Lutheran Church"
164: Walther's 1848 address: "So He makes them all equal to each other in His Church, and the dear Apostles demand no more submissiveness than under Jesus Christ, namely under His Word."
166: "the congregations as such are engaged in internal and external mission (not through individual associations), and there are also excellent congregational schools, whereby the dear youth are snatched away from the otherwise prevailing savagery"
168: American Lutheranism: "the educational system was in a bad state. There were no higher or lower schools that were run according to the scriptural principles of the Lutheran Church"
169: "In October of… [1849] Pastor C.F.W. Walther was elected professor of theology"
171: Prof. Walther: "May our Church in this place be a faithful nurturer of the arts and of learning, — but may these never become the idol on whom altars are built."
172: "Then cholera broke out, which cost sixty victims in the congregation alone; the last victim was Prof. A. Wolter"
174: Missouri Synod to have "nothing to do with the anti-scriptural syncretism [Kirchenmengerei] and false unionism of our days"
179: "…a thousand-fold harvest; no authority has protected the development with its arm, no state has offered the means, no coercion has extorted the money; voluntarily, the mites [as in the widow’s mite, Mark 12:42] of the rich and poor have been put into God's treasury chest, unconstrained love has joined one to another; — who could fail to recognize the blessing of God? … This is what the Lord has done!"

Images of some men appearing in Chapter 6: (146-179)

       H. Fick  ————  E. Brauer  ———— R. Lange ——— A. Biewend —— J.C.W. Lindemann  ——  E. Krauss   ———   St. Keyl

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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation.  All hyperlinks, highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine. All internal hyperlinks are active in this embedded window, external links should be opened in a new tab or window.

After the break below, the customary fine print version. — In the next Part 11, Chapter 7.

Hist9: Chpt 5—Older Synods, Methodists

      This continues from Part 8 (Table of Contents in Part 3), a series presenting an English translation of Pastor Christian Hochstetter's 1885 496-page book entitled (abbreviated) The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884. — Hochstetter moves his focus from Wyneken to a general overview of the conditions of the Lutherans in America at the time of Missouri's founding. Then he gives the sad history of the Methodists and their enthusiasm, or as Luther called them, Schwärmerei.

Some quotes from Chapter 5: (p. 119-146)
120: "The General Synod, founded in 1820… stated officially that although they had examined Luther's doctrinal structure according to God's Word and found it to be essentially correct, they were on common ground with the United Church of Germany."
121: "The General Synod therefore also refrains from obliging its preachers to use the Lutheran symbols."

124: "It was to be regretted that the old Pennsylvanian Synod, which regards Heinrich Melchior Muehlenberg, who had been sent from Halle, as its founder, also joined the General Synod."
126: "the Ohio Synod, which emerged from these conferences by refusing to enter the General Synod…"
127: "…the Lutheran symbols first, which were very rarely found in a pastor’s library at that time"
131: "since precisely the Lutheran confessional writings in all humility subordinate themselves without exception to the Holy Scriptures"
136: "Sihler sent a memoir … in which he finally reproached the Ohio Synod for using the Lutheran Confessions only as a figurehead"
140: "How can the poor sinner be assured of his justification when he has heard the Word of absolution and the word of salvation? How can the poor sinner be assured of his justification if he disregards the word of absolution and the holy sacrament? What good is all the talk of grace, when this grace is conditioned by the works of man?"
142: "they, the Methodists, are the ones who despise God's Word and setup their own work"

Images of men appearing in Chapter 5:

     Sihler     ———     B. Kurtz    ———    P. Henkel   ———  Lehmann   ———   Lochner  ———  W. Nast      ——      Whitefield
                Schmucker   ——   Muehlenberg——— W. Schmidt   ———    Brohm    ———    J. Albrecht  ——— J. Wesley

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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation.  All hyperlinks, highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine. All internal hyperlinks are active in this embedded window, external links should be opened in a new tab or window.

      Another reliable early author of Missouri's history in these matters is Prof. A.L. Graebner, although Hochstetter was closer to the spiritual struggles because of his personal involvement.  He credits Hochstetter's History here.  Unfortunately his massive 726-page work in 1892, Geschichte Der Lutherischen Kirche in America,  is in the German language and remains untranslated (maybe I will tackle this project of translation in the future). Prof. Graebner also authored an English version  (Half a Century of Sound Lutheranism in America: A Brief Sketch of the History of the Missouri Synod, 1893), but it is very brief at only 30 pages, which leaves us English-speaking later generations poorer because if it.  Of course Prof. Friedrich Bente's 1919 American Lutheranism books in English, volume I, volume II (also German edition), greatly helped the situation. After the break below, the rest of the story follows on why later volumes of Bente were not published; then further comments on modern LCMS histories. — In the next Part 10, Chapter 6.

Hist8: Chpt 4: Wyneken—“thunder following lightning!”

[2020-08-21: added photo below of Wyneken while a pastor in Baltimore (from CTS-FW Media)]
      This continues from Part 7 (Table of Contents in Part 3), a series presenting an English translation of Pastor Christian Hochstetter's 1885 496-page book entitled (abbreviated) The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884. — What follows is one of the more pleasant chapters in Hochstetter, for it tells the story of the colorful life of Missionary/Pastor/President Friedrich Wyneken.  And Hochstetter adds another narrative about Wyneken's life to other existing histories. I found Hochstetter's history to be one of the best accounts – who can forget the images portrayed of this fiery, passionate missionary, by his admirer Hochstetter? — We have blogged before about Wyneken. Although there are other writings about this well-known figure in Missouri's history, I invite readers who may have read from modern historians to set them aside, and just read Hochstetter's account which is the only one personally approved by both CHI Director Suelflow and C.F.W. Walther. 

Some quotes from Chapter 4: (p. 91-119)

91: "The Saxon pastors… did not enter this country as missionaries"

92: "When Wyneken read much of the church plight of German Lutherans in the United States… in mission papers at home, the great misery of these people went to his heart"

96: "On October 2 [1838] Wyneken began his first major missionary journey."

98: "A man came up to Wyneken and asked with a self-important air: 'Tell me, Pastor, do you really believe what you preach? I don't believe it.' Wyneken replied immediately, 'And when the devil has you by the throat and is pulling you into hell, you just scream and scream away, 'I don't believe it, I don't believe it, I don't believe it’. With that, Wyneken got on his horse and rode away."
105: "He gave me a sad account of how people everywhere fell to the Methodists and were suddenly inspired by them against our church."
107: "…no one was more severe on himself than Wyneken."
110: "In Columbus, Ohio, [Ohio Synod] there was never to be a permanent place for truly German theologians."
116: "People used to say that in relation to the doctrine for which Prof. Walther brought the right light, Wyneken's word was like thunder following lightning! ‘The Lord had also placed him,’ writes Prof. Walther in a short obituary, ‘as His instrument in these manifold councils to make the Gospel resound loud and clear,’ — for this he was a man of action"
Images of men appearing in Chapter 4:

Wyneken –  Otterbein  –   Sihler    –    Craemer   –   A. Ernst   – C.A.T. Selle – Wucherer  – Brandt   –   Loehe  –  Baierlein  –  Sievers

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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation.  All hyperlinks, highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine. All internal hyperlinks are active in this embedded window, external links should be opened in a new tab or window.

      Hochstetter tells us that Wyneken, the "thunder that followed [Walther's] lightning", "died without complaint".  In contrast to this, after the break below, notes follow about current LCMS leaders and their often misleading impressions of Wyneken that would tend to have us regard Hochstetter's History as misleading about Wyneken.  But the problem for them is that C.F.W. Walther himself stated that the factual History of Hochstetter "simply cannot be gain-sayed", even though the LCMS leaders, teachers, and historians try ever so hard to do this. — The usual fine print version of Chapter 4 then finishes this post. — In the next Part 9, we present Chapter 5.