DL7b: “few believe Pope is Antichrist”; Catholics stifle; Lutheran strength, weakness

      This continues from Part 7a (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting Der Lutheraner, 1888-1934, in English. — The tactics of Catholic rulers is similar to what Prof. Lindemann reported in his series on "Religious Intolerance". We also see in this segment how LC-MS activities mirror that of Germany's weakening Lutherans… even the conservative ones. — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 50 (1894), p. 204-205: 

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“Keep us, O Lord, by Thy Word, And prevent the murder by Pope and Turk.”

[by Pastor Friedrich Lochner; cont'd from Part 7a]

Even in Protestant countries the papists dare to object to the singing of our hymn. Even when the separated Lutherans in Silesia [now in southwest Poland] continued to sing from their old Breslau hymnal: “And Prevent the Murder by Pope and Turk” [Und steur des Pabsts und Türken Mord] the latter, however, knew how to assert their good right manfully and skillfully.  

However, the Spanish envoy once experienced a fine dispatch. After the death of Emperor Charles V in 1558, when he came to the court of the Lutheran Duke Ernst of Brunswick on business and went to church with him to please him, he heard our hymn sung once and again, much to his chagrin. However, when he finally complained to the Duke about the singing of this hymn, the Duke replied: 

“My preacher is not appointed that I tell him what he should preach and sing, but he is appointed to tell me and all my people from his word in God's stead what we should believe and do so that we may be saved; we should hear him and follow him as God and Christ himself, Matt. 10. and Luke 10. Therefore I do not know how to forbid him to sing this hymn; if you do not want to hear it, stay out of church or go home.”

Unfortunately, in many cases the example of this pious prince was not followed, but here too, for political reasons, papist impertinence was bowed to by changing the words: “Murder of the Pope and the Turk”. This was already the case, for example, at the time of the Interim in the free imperial city of Nuremberg, this stronghold of the Reformation. When the city council encountered persistent opposition from its preachers and citizens with the introduction of the Interim, it tried it in 1549 with a new agenda, in which, however, various concessions were made to the papists. Among them was the following change of the first verse:

Keep us, O Lord, by Thy Word 

And ward off Satan's cunning and murder, 

That Jesus Christ, Thy Son, 

Would have fallen from His throne.

But if such a change took place only three years after Luther's death, is it any wonder that later it was put more and more into the publication of national church hymnals and private collections. And when it had become general, in vain some hymnologists, such as Wackernagel, resolutely demanded the return to the original words.  

Even hymnals that have recorded all the old hymns completely unchanged and whose editors have resolutely advocated the faithful rendering of the old hymns, of the hymns in general, such as Karl von Raumer, [see here] have nevertheless made changes at this point and put into its place either: “And prevent Satan's lies and murder” or: "And prevent thine enemies' murdering." [LC-MS/TLH 1941, #261: “Curb those who fain by craft and sword”]

Let us therefore thank God that our [Old (German) Missouri Synod] hymnal also contains this Reformation hymn completely unchanged! And so that, in these last sorrowful times (1) in which only a few still believe that the Pope is the real Antichrist, and (2) in which one [the LC-MS] has become even more gentle and considerate against this arch-enemy of Christ and His Church and against His shelter, may we sing all the more with right earnestness in our churches and schools: “And prevent the murder by Pope and Turk”, and here is the testimony of one of Luther's students from the year 1569. 

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Lochner thanks God for an unchanged hymnal.  Who does the LC-MS thank for its modified hymnal? — The words of Luther's hymn are "murder by the Pope…".  Now the LC-MS explicitly teaches that the Lutheran Confessions only teach that the Papacy, or the office of the Pope is the Antichrist.  But Luther explicitly states the "murder by the Pope".  So how can the office of the Pope murder someone?  Is it not the office holder who carries out the murdering that Luther sings about? Indeed it is, as all historians point to the various office holders by name who ordered the murdering. Yes, the Smalcald Articles teach that not just the "Papacy", but also all who hold that office are "The Antichrist". — In the next Part 7c, we hear the testimony of a student of Luther. But first, an "Excursus", provided by a commenter, documenting the error of the LC-MS.

DL7a: Lochner defends Luther's “Pope and Turk" hymn (against LC-MS); Der Lutheraner 1894

      This continues from Part 6b (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting Der Lutheraner, 1888-1934, in English. — This sub-series #7 presents a striking essay that will be hard for the LC-MS to swallow. (It should be read along with posts from 2015, last September's, and October's posts)  It was written by Pastor Friedrich Lochner, who has now had a book of his translated by the excellent Matthew Carver and published by CPH.  This book, The Chief Divine Service (CPH 2020) is highly praised by several noted LC-MS theologians and pastors, even some from the Romanizing “Gottesdienst” organization.  President Matthew Harrison states in the Foreword:

"Lochner… is in sympathy and dialogue with…  Roman Catholics".  

Pres. Harrison and his LC-MS leave the notion that the Roman Catholic Church is one to be "in sympathy and dialogue with" and so rarely or only reservedly teach against the Catholic Church by name. They want their people to think that Lochner, and not Walther and Pieper, are closer to true Lutheranism. But Lochner was a true Missourian, a true Lutheran, and slams the door on today’s LC-MS in this short essay on Luther's "most controversial hymn". Although I have previously referenced it, I had not fully translated it. So this time, when I ran across it again, I had to stop and immediately get it translated and polished.  And as I read it I repeatedly laughed out loud, for it clearly exposes today's LC-MS for what it is, a mediating, Romanizing church body that has left Lutheranism in key doctrines. No officials in the LC-MS will be advertising or praising this Der Lutheraner essay by Pastor Lochner. — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 50 (1894), p. 204-205:

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“Keep us, O Lord, by Thy Word, And prevent the murder by Pope and Turk.”

[by Pastor Friedrich Lochner]

As is well known, this is the beginning of the hymn composed by Luther and published in 1542, which originally consisted of three verses and which he gave the characteristic heading: “A children's hymn to sing against the two arch-enemies of Christ and His holy churches, the Pope and the Turk. No doubt Luther called this hymn against the “two arch-enemies” a “children's hymn” in view of the words of the Lord at His entry into Jerusalem and into the temple, Ps. 8:3: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast prepared a power for thine enemies' sake, that thou shouldest destroy the enemy and the avenger.” 

But if ever a hymn of the Lutheran church has experienced the hatred and contradiction of the papists from the beginning until today, then it is this children's and prayer hymn of Luther. Yes, if he had thought only of the Turk, who at that time was again harassing Christianity! But here Luther put the Pope in the same class with the Turks, and not only called both of them the “arch-enemies of Christ and His holy churches,” but also had the children in the churches and schools, in the houses and in the streets proclaim them as such! The Lutherans had to be prevented from singing this. Not only was the hymn mocked by a mean parody (mocking imitation), not only did a Bavarian duke, devoted to the pope, say one day to his courtiers: “Eating (gorging), drinking, whoring, bubens [pornographic German terms] — just don't become Lutheran and sing the God-dishonoring hymn: ‘Keep us, O Lord, by Thy Word’ [Erhalt uns, HErr, bei deinem Wort]”, but they also tried to suppress it by force in old and new times. To cite just a few examples, on December 16, 1548, the singing of this hymn was forbidden in Strasbourg with corporal punishment; likewise in 1662 with severe punishment in the principality of Oels; likewise in 1713 in all of Silesia, despite the freedom of faith solemnly assured in the religious peace. In Regensburg, only after many negotiations with the Bavarian government did the ecclesiastical ministry finally succeed in 1703 in having this hymn sung at least on the Reformation festival, that is, only once a year.  

During the Thirty Years' War, even children had to die over this hymn. When the sinister Catholic commander Tilly, after a long siege, finally stormed the city of Magdeburg in the early morning of May 20, 1631, his soldiers raged among the overcome inhabitants more mercilessly than the Turks and worse than wild animals. While the street fighting was still raging, it happened that schoolchildren went in pairs to church, not only for Matins, as they did every morning at the beginning of school, but this time also for refuge from the murderous sword of the victors. But when Tilly heard, through the clatter of the guns, the shouting of the victors and the groaning of the wounded, that these children were singing as they marched along: “Keep us, O Lord, by thy Word,” he burst upon the crowd of children full of fury and ordered his wild Croatians to cut down these children, shoot them and throw them into the flames. Though the Pope, in his joy at the fall of Magdeburg, might now hold a Te Deum in St. Peter's — yet after his victory Tilly’s fortunes of war fell off, and remorse tormented him over this modern Bethlehem infanticide [Matthew 2:16–18].

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Now we can see why the LC-MS dropped the words "Pope and Turk" from Luther's most controversial hymn, because it was hated so much especially by the papists. — In the next Part 7b, we see the strength of some early Lutherans, but then sadly this began to give way and so we witness how the LC-MS has followed the way of these weak Lutherans.

DL6b: "No Men", Methodist vs Lutheran preaching & practice

     This concludes from Part 6a (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting Der Lutheraner, 1888-1934, in English. — It seems humorous what the Methodists thought about their problem and how to solve it. The "Promise Keepers" movement, started 25 years ago, attempted to help men "live with integrity" and "take a stand for Christ". But with what methods?  Their name gives the answer. — The points that Bente describes of the Old Missouri Synod reminded me of my youth where there were many men who attended services, my father included.  From Der Lutheraner, vol. 55 (1899), p. 228 [EN]:

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“No Men in the Church.”

[by Prof. Friedrich Bente]

Now, just as the Methodists do not recognize the actual reason why men turn their backs on the sectarian churches, they are also not able to name the right means that alone can remedy the problem. One of them said at the congress that the preacher must be friendly with the men, especially with the young men, and thus attract them to himself. Another advised that the preacher form associations among the young men and brotherhoods among the men. A third explained that nothing would help if the preacher did not find out the difference between the spirit of a man and the spirit of a woman. Until now, only female food had been offered, so it was no wonder that the men stayed away where they could not get anything. But if the “male Christ” is preached, men will also come to church. Thus the enthusiasts believe that they can solve “the problem of the present” with a number of tricks and nonsensical phrases, which can only be done by the serious handling of the Word of God on the part of the preacher, the whole congregation and each individual Christian. 

We German Lutherans, as everyone knows, have had churches and services in many places for many decades. However, we have had no cause to join in the general complaint of the sects and papists: “No men in the church,” praise God. In our church attendance, it is the men who have stood their ground. Where does this come from? Because the Lutheran church has so far not wanted to know about sectarian means (socials, etc.) to lure people into the church. Hence, because it has thoroughly instructed its youth in God's Word, so that they could understand and appreciate Christian doctrinal sermons. Hence, because through God's Word the conscience has been constantly sharpened with regard to regular attendance at church services. Therefore, because we have fought with all seriousness, by word and deed, the theater, saloon and lodge system. Finally, because our preachers have preached not from the newspapers, but from the Scriptures, and have thus proclaimed the Gospel, which can make both men and women blessed. And if we continue on the course we have taken and see to it that in the future, too, God's Word will prevail and be brought to bear in all things and everywhere, in the pulpits, in the congregational meetings, and in the families, we need not fear that the complaint of the sects will ever come from among us: “No men in the church.”    F. B.    [Friedrich Bente]

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The "church growth" movement has used the Methodist inspired methods reported above, and more like them.  But the Old Missouri Synod proved that the true Lutheran way is the only way to produce lasting results — through God's Word alone.

DL6a: Bente on a hot topic, “No Men in the Church.”, (Der Lutheraner, 1899)

      This continues from Part 5 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting Der Lutheraner, 1888-1934, in English. —  When I ran across this short essay and realized its topic, and that it was written by Prof. Bente, I knew it would be a good one.  And I was not disappointed.  I can hear Walther in the way he writes about this. To the extent the reader is a Christian, they will not turn away from it. From Der Lutheraner, vol. 55 (1899), p. 228: 

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“No Men in the Church.”

[by Prof. Friedrich Bente]

This complaint, which has been coming from almost all sectarian churches for years, was also addressed by a speaker at the recent Episcopal Methodist Convention in St. Louis. The churches, he said, have become essentially women's churches. The preacher, he said, is reproached by men when he exhorts them to attend church: “You are running a woman's church.” Like Roman priests before them, Protestant preachers now have lost their hold on men, he said. On average, there is not one man for every three women in the church. Preachers who succeed in attracting men are rare birds. Year in, year out, preaching is done almost exclusively to women and children. The same is true of the prayer meeting, which is also composed almost exclusively of women. And in his pastoral work, the preacher also used to limit himself to women and children. The men and young men, however, usually left the church and became agnostics. Indeed, people had become so accustomed to this state of affairs that the preachers were no longer surprised by it. But all this makes one think. How to bring men into the church is the most important problem that the church of today has to solve. 

As the causes of this sad phenomenon were mentioned: Business, which takes up too much of the men's time, Sunday newspapers, saloons, the decay of home worship, the proliferation of clubs, lodges, and theaters, and the false view that women are more religiously inclined than men. The two main reasons, however, why men and young men turn their backs on the sect churches [Reformed] were not recognized and mentioned. These are obviously the religionless, pagan education of the youth in the state schools and the secular, pagan sermons in the sect churches.  

The only means that can lead to the church and keep one in the church is God's Word: Law and Gospel. But God's Word is not used at all in the schools used by the sects and is rarely used in the sect churches. But how can a preacher expect men to be interested in a political sermon, for example, in the long run? And how can secular sermons strike the conscience and awaken the sense of duty with regard to church attendance? Of preachers who take their text from Paul and their sermon from the newspaper, Daniel Webster is reported to have once said, “If a preacher does that, I prefer to enjoy my own thoughts. What I want from my pastor is for him to tell me: ‘You are mortal; you have a short probation; your work must be done soon; you hasten before God's judgment seat.’ So when I am addressed, I have no inclination to dream or sleep.” It is also a fact that the women in the sect churches are attracted and kept less by the sermons than by the church kitchen, church concerts and clubs. [!] What the men seek in clubs and lodges, the women in the sects often seek in the churches: Conviviality.

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Perhaps Bente has caused the reader to catch their breath with his "plain talk"… The rest of this essay in Part 6b.

DL5: How can one become a Lutheran? (Der Lutheraner 1917)

      This continues from Part 4b (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting Der Lutheraner, 1888-1934, in English. — In 1917, Prof. Fuerbringer returned to the editorship after a 3+ year run by Prof. Theo. Graebner. He inserted a very short blurb which caught my eye when going through this volume.  A title with a short, pithy question made me wonder what it had to say, and after having it translated, I decided it was most worthy of a separate blog post.  Der Lutheraner, vol. 73 (1917), p. 281 [EN]:

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How can one become a Lutheran?

The Lutheran theologian Matthias Flacius reported that he had heard the papal legate Antonius [Antonio Possevino] say that one should not read Paul's letters; "for I know," he said, "some people who have become Lutherans merely by reading Paul's letters." The papal legate Antonius was right.  

Valerius Herberger ordered a monk, the eloquent monk Petrus [?], to diligently read the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans and Galatians. After a few days he left the monastery.

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I recall in the training of my youth a similar, if not the same, account and it drives home Walther's point that the Lutheran Church is actually the "true visible Church of God on earth".  — In the next Part 6a, an essay on a topic for today: "No Men in the Church".

DL4b: "we are to be mourned, not he" — on Pieper’s passing

      This concludes from Part 4a (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting Der Lutheraner, 1888-1934, in English. — This segment brings one of the great testimonies for the works of Dr. Franz Pieper, by a notable, but unknown, man from Germany. How I would have enjoyed sitting with him listening to the lecture in the little schoolhouse in Stony Plain, Alberta. But we have the actual lecture in printed form, so we can sit with him, as we are carried to "The Open Heaven". From Der Lutheraner, vol. 89 (1933). p. 252-3 [EN]:

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[Book Review by Prof. Ludwig Fuerbringer, concluded from Part 4a]

O I remember those rich, filled days as clearly as if they had ended only yesterday; and yet it is four years since this unique and unforgettable man stirred the hearts of all who listened to him then. Fearlessly, but not with the fearlessness of despair like some philosophers, but in the blissful fearlessness of faith in the Son of God, he has now crossed over to that distant — for us still distant — land where he will reawaken to a more beautiful, deeper, purer life. Thus his death was the affirmation and confirmation of what he taught, and at the same time the crowning of this evangelical life. I remember that Prof. Pieper in his lecture at that time — it must have been the same morning or afternoon when I noted down the words mentioned at the beginning — quoted a line from the old beautiful hymn ‘I Am a Guest on Earth’. It reads: 

“I walk my roads, 

That lead to home. 

Where my Father will 

comfort me without measure.

He has now recovered in the truest and fullest sense of the word and is comforted forever. So it is we who are to be mourned, not he. We have no lasting city here, but the future, eternal one we seek. He has found it, while we do not know how long the way will still be, which God has still destined us to go. 

“I was not fortunate enough to be able to call Prof. Pieper my teacher; how very different my path would probably have been! I heard him for barely a week. But this was already enough to make me feel richly endowed by him today and forever. How bright and golden then the sunshine broke through the windows of the little schoolhouse in Stony Plain, where pastors, church officials, and guests listened to his words! Sometimes, when he paused in his lecture to collect himself for a new section, there was such silence in the room that you could have heard a pin drop to the floor. He had all the hearers completely under his spell, and scarcely ever have I experienced the truth of the word of Scripture, ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,’ so vividly as in those days at Stony Plain. A manly piety radiated around this man who - of this I am convinced — could not only teach but also fight, a knight of the Holy Spirit without fear and reproach, a worthy descendant of Luther, who did not allow himself to be traded and marketed, but served with an incorruptible heart the one who had called him, a man of 'Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise; God help me! Amen', a truly exemplary preacher of the Word of God.

“I am grateful to my Creator for granting me the days then at the feet of this man equally unshakable in faith and doctrine. His venerable figure will always be to me one of the few whose example is worth living up to — or, more modestly, trying to live up to; for he combined in himself keenness of intellect with great modesty and goodness of heart, boldness and high flight of thought with a wide-ranging compassion for all living things, readiness for any serious discussion with an unshakable faith in the Gospel.

“A faithful and untiring servant of his Lord and Savior has gone home, whither only our hope and longing can follow him.

“Truly and once again, it is we, not he, who are to be lamented.”

And shall we add a word of recommendation especially for our congregation members? Half a year ago a faithful reader of the “Lutheraner” wrote to us, among other things, the following: “While reading the ‘Lutheraner’ of January 10 and the article ‘Our Delegate Synod’ written by you, I thought of father Dr. Pieper, who is now resting in God, how he gave the wonderful lecture ‘The Open Heaven’ at the second to last Delegate Synod in 1929 at River Forest. I was a delegate at that time, and the lecture left such an impression on me that I always remember the Open Heaven.” Thus writes a plain, simple Christian. L. F.

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Indeed, Pieper's lecture on "The Open Heaven" is one I will never forget, and is "worth holding on to forever". — The Lutheraner series continues in the next Part 5…

DL4a: Book Review: Pieper's "What Is Christianity? and other Essays"

      This continues from Part 3c (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting Der Lutheraner, 1888-1934, in English. — In this sub-series, we present editor Prof. Ludwig Fuerbringer's 1933 Book Review of a book published posthumously of some of Franz Pieper's convention essays in English.  Up until that time, there were not many translations of Pieper's German writings, but in order to honor his memory 2 years after his "home going", J. T. Mueller's translations were assembled and put into book form. (I have previously blogged about this book here and here.) Editor Fuerbringer brings us the following review of this book after it came off the press at CPH. But this includes a review from a German man outside the Missouri Synod who gave a most wonderful perspective of Dr. Pieper's works. From Der Lutheraner, vol. 89 (1933). p. 252-3 [EN]:

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[Book Review by Prof. Ludwig Fuerbringer]

 

What Is Christianity? And Other Essays. By the Rev. Prof. F. Pieper, D. D., Late Professor of Dogmatics, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. Presented in English by John Theodore Mueller, Th. D., Professor of Systematic Theology, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. VIII and 290 pages 5X7½, bound in cloth with gilt title. Price: $1.75.

It is with very special pleasure that we present this book. As the title indicates, they are treatises of our blessed Dr. F. Pieper, which he delivered and later published in German and which have now been published in a smooth English translation by his younger colleague and collaborator. They are six treatises, “The Nature of Christianity,” written in 1902 as a reply to Prof. Adolf Harnack's much-mentioned book on “The Nature of Christianity", then “The Lay Movement Ordered by God” of 1913, “Man's Reconciliation with God” of 1916, “The Holy Scriptures” of 1921, “The Christian World View” of 1923, and “The Open Heaven", the unforgettable last lecture of our blessed teacher from the last Delegate Synod he attended, namely, in River Forest, in 1929. All these treatises in the German language are well-known and disseminated. Here they are presented to the younger generation, especially to our parishioners, in English. What impression the teaching of Dr. Pieper's doctrines made on people from completely different circles, we would like to share here in detail as a recommendation of this book.  

The writer of the following words is a German writer who came to Canada in 1927 on behalf of a world-renowned German newspaper to become better acquainted with the prospects for poorer immigrants. By a strange twist of circumstances, he became well acquainted and friendly with one of our pastors, attended his services, often conversed with him about spiritual matters, and also, on his advice, attended the meeting of our Alberta and British Columbia District in Stony Plain [near Edmonton] in 1927. He later returned to Germany and is now editor-in-chief of a monthly scientific journal. This highly educated man wrote when he received the news of Dr. Pieper's blessed passing on June 3, 1931 (and his words may be considered a special peculiar recommendation of the present work): 

“‘But we need not fear death. God gave us Christians a good consolation that endures all times, all sorrows, all grief of this existence forever and ever. He sent us His Son, our dear Savior, to save us from the curse of sin and the fear of death. We Christians know that when the last hour comes, when the little light of our life is about to be extinguished, we need not be afraid, but rather can rejoice; for the Lord Jesus Christ will carry us in his arms into the bosom of the Father, and we will be like a child who was lost and now found the way again that leads to his home, his eternal, blessed home.’ …

“I found these words in an old notebook of mine, which I always carry with me along with a few others, and in which I record what seems to me to be worth holding on to forever from that day. They are a quotation from Prof. Pieper's paper on 'The Power of the Gospel,' which was the centerpiece of the June 1927 Synod convention of the Alberta and British Columbia District of the Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States in Stony Plain, Alberta. 

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I wish I knew the identity of this German writer so that I could research the rest of his Christian life.  We will hear great things from him in the concluding Part 4b…