Pieper's Ref. sermon (Part 2): There was a man…

      This concludes from Part 1 publishing an English translation of Pieper's 1902 Reformation Festival Sermon. — Pieper gave the history of the darkness that had fallen on Christianity by the Papacy in the last segment. But now the time had come that God would set the Church back on its feet.

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The very essence of the Reformation.

(Conclusion, Part 2 of 2)

There was a man who was born under the papacy and educated in lower and higher schools under the papacy — Martin Luther. Recognizing that he was a sinner before God, he had a heartfelt desire to be assured of God's grace. Even as a student in Erfurt, he often cried out in the anguish of his soul: "Oh, when will you once become pious and do enough to get a gracious God!" He now sought with all earnestness the grace of God in the way prescribed by the Roman church, in the way of his own works, penances, and atonements. No peace came to his soul! He became a monk and prayed and watched and fasted with such earnestness that he came close to death. But no peace came into his soul. Luther fared as a traveler does who strives toward a certain goal, but out of ignorance of the way takes the opposite path. The more eagerly and quickly he travels, the more he departs from his goal. Thus one does not come closer to the grace of God through his own works, but only steps further away from grace. The first ray of light fell into Luther's soul when an old monastic brother pointed out to him the words of the Apostles' Creed, "I believe a forgiveness of sins," and full peace then entered his soul when he gradually recognized clearly from the Holy Scriptures: "No man can and should make himself a gracious God. That is what Christ has done. All sinners are to believe in Christ, that is, to take comfort in the merit of Christ. By this faith in Christ they have a gracious God." Luther preached this doctrine as a preacher and as a professor of theology. The ruling church disagreed. The Pope put Luther under ban. Luther burned the Pope's bull of excommunication and continued to teach. Hundreds, thousands, millions recognized what Luther taught as the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, as the ancient Gospel of Christ and the Apostles, as the Christian answer to the question: How does a man get a gracious God? That is how the Reformation of the Church came about. So it was not by human wisdom, not by political wisdom, not by worldly scholarship — although Luther was also a learned man — that the Church was reformed, but by the fact that the old Gospel was again made known in the Church, which had been taught by Christ and the Apostles and laid down in Scripture. The Church now sang again in recognition of the Christian doctrine of justification:

Salvation has come to us 

From grace and goodness, 

Works can never help, 

They cannot protect;

Faith looks to Jesus Christ, 

Who has done enough for all of us;

He has become the mediator.

And now let us look at ourselves. We Lutherans of America enjoy the outward consequences of the Reformation: we enjoy political and religious freedom in this glorious, God-blessed land. God preserve us this good, as we pray every Sunday in church prayer. But above all, we have and enjoy the spiritual goods of the Reformation. We walk in the bright light of the Reformation. We have that in which the very essence of the Reformation consists. We who have been reared in the orthodox American Lutheran Church know from our youth that a man has a gracious God, not by his own virtue and works, but by faith in Christ crucified. — Let us now hold what we have. This admonition is necessary. And not only against the Papacy. In the midst of Protestant Christianity it has become fashionable to push aside the Gospel of Christ crucified, the Gospel by which Luther became certain of God's grace and the Reformer of the Church. One wants to dissolve Christianity again into a sum of moral precepts. But this is not progress, as they would have us believe, but regression, a relapse into paganism. — God has gradually given our Synod a large field of work. Not only are our messengers working throughout the United States and Canada, but they have been called to South America, Australia, New Zealand, India, Germany, and England. But we must not forget that our work is of value to the Church of Christ only if we hold to the Christian doctrine that man is justified without works of the law, by faith alone. — We continue to train preachers. We rightly see to it that they are also well trained in languages and worldly knowledge. But above all, we must see to it that our young theologians can preach the Gospel of Christ crucified clearly and powerfully, and lead people to the certainty of God's grace. The Gospel of Christ, as Luther rightly says, is the one treasure of the Christian church. Without this treasure the Church is poor; in the possession of this treasure she is rich, infinitely rich. How valuable we consider this treasure, we also want to prove by the fact that we spare no sacrifice of earthly goods for the operation of the mission, for the care of our parochial schools and our institutions of higher learning. Thus we show ourselves to be true spiritual children of the Reformation. May God grant us His grace to do so. Amen.

F. Pieper.

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This sermon has certainly renewed my faith. May the reader be "certain of God's grace", as Luther taught, and rejoice.

Pieper's 1902 Reformation sermon (Part 1)

      In 1902, 120 years ago, Dr. Franz Pieper was called on to give the address for a Reformation Festival where all the St. Louis congregations gathered.  When I ran across this sermon that was printed in Der Lutheraner, I had to get it translated to see what those congregations heard from his lips.  I was not disappointed.  I knew then that it would be the perfect content for a Reformation Day blog.  I present it in 2 parts, with the concluding portion to be published on October 31, the actual anniversary date, 505 years after Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door.  From Der Lutheraner vol. 58, pp. 353-355 (Nov. 11, 1902) [EN] (underlining is Pieper's emphasis):

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The very essence of the Reformation.

(Address delivered at a community celebration of the Reformation Festival of St. Louis congregations at the Exposition Building).

Dr. Franz Pieper

Esteemed assembly, dear fellow members in the faith!

The Lutheran congregations of the city of St. Louis have gathered here today to commemorate the Reformation, and it has become my task to briefly describe the essence of the Reformation. To this theme I will adhere.

So I do not want to talk about the fact that with the Reformation a new and better time has dawned also for civil and state life, as is generally conceded outside the Roman camp. I do not want to go into the obvious fact that the countries that have closed themselves off to the Reformation are also behind the countries in which the Reformation has found its way into civil life. Of these things I will not speak, because they belong only to the external consequences of the Reformation. The Reformation itself is essentially an ecclesiastical event. It has to do not with the state, but with the church. It has to do with the question: 

How does sinful man get a gracious God? And the essence of the Reformation is that through it the right Christian answer to this question has again become known in the church, namely, the answer: man obtains God's grace, not through his own works, but through faith in Christ, the Savior of the world.

There is really only One important question in the world for people after they become sinners. The question is the same at all times and among all peoples. All people also deal with this question in one way or another. This is the question: How can I get a gracious God? As long as this question is not answered correctly, no human being can find inner peace.

This question has been answered correctly by Christianity. Christianity, of course, gives an answer that no man has thought of, nor could think of, an answer that has not come into any man's heart, as the apostle Paul says. All human religions, that is, all non-Christian religions, seek God's grace in the way of human works. They instruct men how men themselves can and should make themselves gracious to God by sacrifices, gifts, giving of life, etc. Christianity says no to this! To this Christianity says no! It is not by his own works, whether they be many or few, that man obtains a gracious God, but only through faith in Christ. And why only through faith in Christ? Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, stepped in for man before God. By His deeds and sufferings Christ reconciled men to God, and since God has thus had mercy on men, His unalterable order is this: whoever believes in Christ as his reconciler has a gracious God. This is the teaching of the Old Testament, this is the teaching of the New Testament, this is the teaching of Christianity. And this doctrine satisfies consciences, as the apostle Paul confesses in the name of all believers in Christ: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" [Rom. 5:1] Thus even at the last hour the penitent avenger on the cross satisfied his conscience. So also the astronomer Copernicus became certain of the grace of God, as he himself testifies. Thus must every conscience be satisfied that is to come to rest. That is Christianity! This is Christianity as taught by the prophets and apostles and Christ himself.

But what happened to this teaching in the course of time within external Christianity? It was gradually forgotten and, on the contrary, according to the way of the heathen, the salvation 

from the works of men. The outer Christendom began to walk in the way of the heathen in the main doctrine of Christianity. In Old Testament times, the people of Israel repeatedly fell away from the religion God had given them and turned to the idolatry of the surrounding pagans. So it happened in the New Testament, especially under the papacy, that that which called itself the Christian Church fell away to the heathen, became heathen, in the doctrine of the attainment of the grace of God and of salvation. If any man, whose conscience was awakened, asked in the anguish of his life, "How can I obtain a gracious God?" he was not answered by the official church, "Faith in Jesus Christ," "Christ is the propitiation for our sins," etc., but was then pointed to his own works, to penances, penitentials, pilgrimages, monastic life, and other works of man. This was the deformation, the de-Christianization of the Church under the Papacy. And the result was unspeakable misery of souls, doubt and despair, especially among the serious-minded, for no man can be sure of the grace of God by his own works.

Now how did the Reformation of the Church come about? How could it come to a Reformation of the Church? Of course, even before the Reformation it was noticed that something, yes, much, was not right in the church. There was even talk of a reformation "of head and limbs" which was necessary for the church. Three great councils in the 15th century, the councils of Pisa, Costnitz, and Basle, wanted to reform the church. They achieved nothing, because they did not recognize the actual damage to the church, namely the apostasy from the Gospel. They only wanted to put an end to external abuses. No, no, the Church could only be reformed in such a way that it was called back from the Law to the Gospel, from the pagan-papist doctrine of works to the Christian doctrine of faith in Christ. And how did this happen?

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Pieper has set the stage for "the very essence of the Reformation", and Part 2 finishes his stirring account, on Monday, October 31 — not "Halloween", but Reformation Day.

StL10b: Polemics strengthen the weak; Lord's chosen armor

      This continues from Part 10a (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's complete writings in English. —  Walther explains why Luther's polemics are so great.  While his sermons, catechetics, and expositions are indispensable for new readers, yet his polemics can address issues for which these readers may be weak in faith. 

(From Der Lutheraner, vol. 46 p. 205 (No. 26, Dec. 16, 1890) [EN] (underlining follows Guenther's emphasis):

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[Review by Martin Guenther; concluded from Part 10a]

Dogmatic - polemical writings.

B. Against the Sacramentarians and other zealots,

as well as against the Jews and Turks.

     [Walther's quote continued]:

Luther's polemical writings make the one who already believes the truths he defends with all his heart rejoice, they strengthen the weak in faith, they make the hitherto doubtful certain, they give full light to the hitherto ignorant of the matter and to the one who out of weakness is caught in error, and they crush the willfully resisting opponent of truth. … The longer one reads these writings and immerses oneself in them, the more undoubted it becomes that here it is not a man who fights against flesh and blood, but that the Lord Himself, through His chosen armor, fights against the prince of darkness, who has deceived poor people into being his instruments. … In addition, like all the writings of this true Reformer, they have the peculiarity of being instructive and attractive to the most simple as well as to the most learned; even the most mischievous sophistries of the opponents are clearly laid before their eyes in all their nakedness, and even the deepest doctrines of divine revelation are presented, substantiated and developed in the brightest and clearest manner.” L. u. W. III, 43 f.

Other important writings contained in this volume could be referred to; among the controversial writings against the Jews we only want to mention the writing against the Sabbaths as important for us here in America, where some want to have keep Sunday as a Jewish Sabbath.

Prof. Hoppe has also taken care in the publication of this volume to provide a correct text; he has added valuable explanations, corrected incorrect time determinations and newly translated some things from Latin. The "Introduction to Luther's controversial writings" etc. is a thorough work and the "Index of some rare or obsolete words in Luther's writings" a most valuable addition.

May this new volume be widely distributed and not only purchased, but also diligently read and studied. Price: $5.00. G. [Martin Guenther]

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      The 3 volumes of Luther's polemics  (18, 19, 20) were the first volumes that I tackled to digitize and translate because Luther's polemics so clearly defended the true Christian faith.  And he stood on the Rock, that is Christ and His Word. — Guenther's short writing only briefly mentions Luther's writings against the Jews, a disappointment for me as I wanted to hear his judgment on this "hot topic" for today. — In the next Part 10c, we add a short review by Franz Pieper from Lehre und Wehre.

StL10a: Guenther (& Walther) on Vol. 20, against Sacramentarians, Jews, Turks (Der Lutheraner 1890)

      This continues from Part 9c (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's complete writings in English. —  This new 2-part sub-series presents Prof. Martin Guenther's announcement and review of  StL Volume 20, the last of the 3 volumes of "Dogmatic-Polemical Writings." This moves on from earlier volumes on the Papists to the Sacramentarians, Jews and Turks. The great value of this essay is the extended quote taken from Walther's earlier writing. 

(From Der Lutheraner, vol. 46 p. 205 (No. 26, Dec. 16, 1890) [EN] (all underlining follows Guenther's emphasis):

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Dr. Martin Luther's

Reformation Writings.

Second Section.

Dogmatic - polemical writings.

B. Against the Sacramentarians and other zealots,

as well as against the Jews and Turks.

Our readers will certainly be pleased that — after a year — a new volume of our Luther edition has appeared. While the two volumes published before this one contained Luther's controversies against the papists, the new volume contains the controversies against the sacramentarians, i.e., the enthusiasts who deny the true presence of the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament, against other enthusiasts, as well as against the Jews and Turks. If the dissemination and study of Luther's writings against the papists is necessary and important in our time and in our country, since the papacy seeks to expand its power, the same applies to the writings against the sacramentarians, since we are surrounded by sacramentarians and enthusiasts in this country, and one no longer wants to see enemies of the truth of Christ in the sacramentarians, but rather likes to unite with them.

The main writings of the present volume are: 

Against the Heavenly Prophets,

Sermon on the Sacrament against the Fanatics [Schwärmgeister],

That These Words "This is My Body" Still Stand Firm against the Fanatics,

The Great and Small confession of the Lord's Supper.

About these writings of Luther, the blessed Dr. Walther wrote in 1857: 

 

“After many years of uninterrupted study of these writings, we have come to the clear conviction that Luther not only wrote the best, most thorough, and most powerful of all against the Reformed errors, but that these polemical (controversial) writings of Luther surpass everything that has ever been written in the field of polemics. Those who have not yet read these writings do not yet know what polemicizing (fighting the errors) actually means.… 

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Walther reveals to what extent he himself studied Luther: "years of uninterrupted study". Walther can properly speak on Luther.  We see now how he can so deftly quote from Luther and all the old orthodox Lutheran theologians. The next Part 10b finishes the quote from Walther on Luther's polemics.

StL9c: Pieper, v. 19: Of Justification, Councils, etc.; Hoppe's excellent work (Lehre und Wehre 1890)

      This continues from Part 9b (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's complete writings in English. — This blog post presents Prof. Pieper's review of volume 19, the 2nd of 3 under Walch's subheading of "Dogmatic-Polemical Writings." — From Lehre und Wehre vol. 36 (1890), p. 20-21,[EN]: 

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Dr. Martin Luther's Complete Writings, according to Dr. J. G. Walch, re-edited on behalf of the Ministry of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, etc. Nineteenth volume. Dogmatic-polemical writings against the papists. (Continuation.)

[review by F. Pieper]

It gives us great pleasure to announce the publication of the 19th volume of our [St. Louis] Luther edition. Prof. Hoppe has done the same diligent work in this volume as he did in the earlier volumes for which he was responsible. In this volume, too, a considerable part of the writings (e.g. the important writings "Of the Babylonian Captivity", "Against Henry, King of England", "Judgment of the Spiritual and Monastic Vows”, furthermore very important theological disputations, e.g. of Justification, of the Power of Councils, etc.) has been newly translated from the Latin. In the writings originally written in German, the text could be improved in very many cases. The 65-page introduction has been rewritten with great care and not only provides information about the historical context of the individual writings, but also offers excellent individual notes that serve the understanding of the writings. Thus, for example, p. 15, the accusation that Luther wrote too harshly against his opponents, especially against his opponents among the princes, is discussed. It says here, among other things:  

“The accusation that Luther wrote too harshly against the enemies of the Gospel appears again and again. We are of the opinion that this accusation cannot be countered more effectively than by pointing out how Luther's opponents reviled and blasphemed the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church in Him 1). 

1) This is how Luther himself justified his harsh letter against Henry VIII. of England: “If a king of England may impudently spout fine lies, I may cheerfully thrust them back down his throat, for in doing so he blasphemes all my Christian teachings and smears fine dirt on the crown of my King of honor, namely Christ, whose teachings I have.”

Therefore we leave here a more extensive excerpt from this characteristic writing of his bitter enemy” (Duke George) “and believe thereby once and for all to be relieved of the duty to take Luther also further in defense against said reproach. What believing Christian's heart should not burn with righteous anger at such invective against the Church of Christ, as Duke George here mendaciously brings forward? Luther could not have been a Reformer if he had treated such a man gently and mildly." 

In order to encourage the purchase and reading of this volume of Luther's writings, we would like to remind you of two things. Once of the dictum of the Altorf Professor [Christoph] Sonntag: "Quo propior Luthero, eo melior theologus." ["The closer to Luther, the better the theologian"] — 

Secondly, to a pronouncement of the blessed Dr. Walther: 

 

"After the apostles and prophets, Luther has no equal in the Church. Name only one doctrine which Luther did not expound in the clearest and most glorious way. Would it not now be unspeakable ingratitude to God, who sent us this man, if we did not want to listen to his voice? Then we would not have recognized the time in which God has afflicted us. . . . God holds Christianity responsible if it does not recognize this man as the Reformer of the Church. We must not think in relation to Luther: 'So can we; as well as Luther found the truth, so well shall we find it by diligent study.' No, when God fills his prophets with spirit and light, he does so for the common benefit of the church; and woe to the church if it does not use God's instrument but passes it by. A church in which Luther's writings are not studied first by the pastors and then, at their instigation, by the common Christians, certainly does not have Luther's spirit, and Luther's spirit is the pure evangelical spirit of faith, humility and simplicity.” (L. und W. 1887, p. 305 f.)

In the present volume are found, among others, the following important writings: "Of the Babylonian Captivity," "Answer to the Book by King Henry of England," "On Avoiding the Doctrines of Men," "Of the Keys," "Of the Freedom of a Christian Man," "Of the Abuse of the Mass," "Of the Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests," "Of Both Forms of the Sacrament," "Judgment of the Spiritual and Monastic Vows," etc. The volume includes 74 pages of introduction and table of contents and 1967 columns of text and costs $4.50.      F. P. [Franz Pieper]

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Pieper's praise of Prof. Hoppe's work is high praise indeed, given his own knowledge of all things Luther and his own language skills. I would rate the scholarship and particularly the spiritual insight of the St. Louis Edition as exceeding all other publications of Luther's writings, including the famous Weimar Edition used by LC-MS scholars. — In the next Part 10a…

StL9b: Luther's harsh language; scholarly Latin translation, editing

      This concludes from Part 9a (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's complete writings in English. — Guenther gives examples of Luther's "harsh" language, then gives more details of the scholarly work of Latin translation that went into the venerable St. Louis Edition. 

(From Der Lutheraner, vol. 44 p. 185-186 (No. 24, Nov. 20, 1888) [EN] (all underlining and bolding follows Guenther's emphasis):

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[Reviewed by Prof. Martin Guenther; concluded from Part 9a]

Dogmatic-Polemical Writings.

A. Against the Papists.

In his writing “Against the Papacy at Rome, instituted by the Devil,” he, after having just spoken in holy wrath against the enemies of God, breaks out into the words:

“Ah, my dear brother in Christ, hold it too well for me, where I speak so rudely here or elsewhere of the tiresome, cursed, enormous monstrosity of Rome. He who knows my thoughts must say that I do him far, far, far too little, and cannot with any words nor thoughts attain to the shameful, desperate blasphemy that he commits with the Word and name of Christ, our dear Lord and Savior, laughs afterwards into his fist, as if he had finely mocked the fool of Christ and his Christians, who believe such of his glosses, and yet he pretends great pomp, as if he were Christ's Vicarius (Vicar) and wanted to make all the world blessed with his holiness.” (Erl. ed. 26, 179.)

Incidentally, Luther's opponents themselves gave rise to some expressions. If, for example, the notorious [Jerome] Emser not only had his family coat of arms, a jumping and thrusting goat, placed in front of his writings, but also the words: “Beware, the goat thrusts you,” what could be more obvious than that Luther, in his writings against Emser, referred to him as the “goat of Leipzig”? Hence Luther wrote: 

“My greeting to the goat of Leipzig. If I had called you a goat, my Emser, you would certainly have written a book or two about it, and showered me with all kinds of lies, blasphemies and words of shame, as is your way. Now you yourself, with coarse letters, so that everyone knows, call yourself a goat, and threaten no more than to push, and say: ‘Beware, the goat pushes you’; then I may well, I hope, also receive you with your favor and grace as a goat; although it would have been unnecessary for you to write it on paper; it is nevertheless well seen in your whole being that you are a goat; in addition, that you could not do more than push, your little books and speech are superfluous.” (p. 1250.)

About the work that the editors have done in publishing this volume, it says in the Foreword: 

“This work has cost the one who has taken care of it, Prof. Hoppe, a lot of time and effort. Most of the writings mentioned were originally written in Latin, and the old translations were in great need of correction. The latter have therefore also been exactly revised according to the original and almost all of them have been replaced by new translations. The latter also applies to Luther's well-known writing De servo arbitrio, ‘That Free Will is Nothing.’.... Since Justus Jonas” (in his translation) “has not only occasionally missed the sense of the Latin expression, but has delivered more a free paraphrase than a translation, and has throughout added his own ingredient to Luther's words, it finally seemed more advantageous to give this so important writing of Luther into the hands of the readers in a literal translation. And that is what has been done here. The historical introduction, which gives an account of the origin of the writings printed in this volume and thus at the same time contains an important piece of Reformation history, is likewise a completely new work, in which, in addition to the old material, the more recent research has also been utilized.”

So this volume is strongly recommended to all our readers. It costs $4.50. G. [Martin Guenther]

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We see from Editor Stoeckhardt's comments that Prof. Hoppe, the editor of later volumes, was already beginning to help on this edition in 1888.  One year later, in 1889, Hoppe would take over the editorship of perhaps the greatest edition of Luther's writings. — In the next Part 9c, we add an insightful review by Franz Pieper from Lehre und Wehre.

StL9a: Guenther, v. 18; ML Polemics – first rank (Der Lutheraner 1888)

      This continues from Part 8* (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's complete writings in English. — This 3-part sub-series presents Prof. Martin Guenther's review of  StL Volume 18, the first of the 3 volumes of "Dogmatic-Polemical Writings." His excerpt from editor Prof. Stoeckhardt's "Foreword" is well worth a read for its power. Then we add Pieper's insightful review of the same volume in Part 9c. 

(From Der Lutheraner, vol. 44 p. 185-186 (No. 24, Nov. 20, 1888) [EN] (all underlining and bolding follows Guenther's emphasis):

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Dr. Martin Luther's

Reformation Writings.

Second part.

Dogmatic-Polemical Writings.

A. Against the Papists.

St. Louis, Mo.-Luth Concordia Publishers. 1888.

To all our dear readers the pleasant news that another volume of our new Luther edition has appeared. It is the eighteenth volume of Walch's edition and contains Luther's controversial writings against the papists from the years 1516-1525; namely, 1. those against the semipelagian school theologians, 2. against Tetzel, 3. against Prierias, 4. against Dungersheim, 5. against Eck, 6. Against the theologians at Cologne, Louvain, and Paris, 7. Against Alveld, 8. Against Latomus, 9. Against Emser, 10. Against the Minorites at Jüterbock, 11. Against Ambrosius Catharinus, 12. Against Erasmus; among the latter, the well-known and famous reply to Erasmus, “That Free Will is Nothing.” [or “The Bondage of the Will”]

 

“Luther's controversial writings,” it says in the Foreword [by editor Prof. Georg Stöckhardt], “are truly not of subordinate importance among Luther's writings, but rank among those of the first rank. As high and incomparable as Luther stands as a preacher, as a catechist, as an exegete, he is first and foremost the Reformer of the Church. And especially his polemical writings are a testimony and monument to the great work and struggle of the Reformation. If you first carefully read through the writings of Luther contained in this volume one after the other, it will probably take some effort to work your way through the jumble of papist lies, posts, and foolishness that Luther had to deal with. But this effort is amply rewarded when he now sees how the light shines out of the darkness, how the bright glow of the Gospel drives away the old night, and when he then follows step by step the course, progress and victory of divine truth, up to that climax, when the sun stands in the bright noon, when Luther testifies to Erasmus the gospel of the free grace of God with a joy of faith and certainty of victory, such as is seldom found, and calls out as with the voice of a herald into the Pharisaic world.”

 

Although many moderns hold Luther's controversial writings in low esteem, we count them precisely among the most glorious treasures that God has given to the church. As Luther was the greatest teacher of the church after the Apostles, who led it back to apostolic purity, so he was also the bravest fighter for the honor of God, the fighter who should beat the Antichrist. Some are offended by the harsh words he used in his pamphlets. But what would have become of the Reformation if Luther had acted so mildly, so leniently against the Pope and his worshippers, as newer people do and demand? No Reformation would have come about. The papacy would still be there today unweakened, it would have increased in power. Luther had to speak so harshly, so crudely, had to treat the papacy with scorn and derision, if it was to be fought in truth and if the fight was not to be a mere air-raid. Only in this way could Luther free the poor, deceived, enchanted people from the bonds of the Pope. Luther saw before his eyes how the Pope and his servants despised God's Word and hardened themselves against the truth, how they robbed Christ, the one mediator, of His honor, how they seduced the poor souls with their lies and persecuted and killed the witnesses of the truth. Should he not rather speak harshly to the hardened enemies in holy anger, in ardent zeal for God's honor, in fervent love for the deceived souls? 

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When I first read the extended quote above, I thought it was from book reviewer Guenther, but the narrative pointed to an even more excellent writer.  I then discovered it was from the StL book editor George Stoeckhardt and so I had another reason to rank Stoeckhardt quite highly among the teachers of the Old Missouri Synod. Many people are offended by Luther’s harsh words. But Luther is battling for them, that they see the errors in doctrine for what they are: poison. — In the next Part 9b are quotes from Luther to demonstrate that he, and no one else, was the "Reformer of the Church."