Fritschel on LC–MS's Biermann: is he a Christian? (Part 2)

[2024-12-12: Added reference to Pieper essay; 2024-11-26: added sentence in red below.]

      This continues from Part 1 in a series (Table of Contents in Part 1) on the teaching of Concordia Seminary's Prof. Joel Biermann on Holy Scripture. — Biermann could not make his lecture statements if he really believed in the Inspiration of Holy Scripture. He could not teach "sola scriptura" as the Reformation theologians did.  A perfect response to his provocative statements comes from the old Iowa Synod, a synod that later merged into the American Lutheran Church (ALC – 1930-1960), then into today's ELCA. So one would not expect to see a defense of the Bible and its divine inspiration coming from their teachers. Yet the following is recorded by the historian of the ALC, Fred W. Meuser, in his 1958 Yale dissertation The Formation of the American Lutheran Church: A Case Study in Lutheran Unity, p. 178-179:

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The publications of both Iowa and Ohio [Synods] gave considerable attention during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to the attacks by modern Biblical scholars on the traditional view of inspiration. Authors of both synods were fully convinced that the Bible taught its own divine inspiration, and that because the writings were inspired they were completely reliable. Not every assertion of the earlier dogmaticians was defended, but there was no yielding on the belief that Scriptural authority and reliability were essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Gottfried Fritschel in 1875 expressed the convictions of his synod and all conservative Lutherans when he wrote:

“The doctrine of inspiration is no distinctive Lutheran doctrine; it is common to all of Christendom. If a man denies it, the question is not whether he can remain a Lutheran but whether he can even be regarded as a Christian. Acceptance of the Holy Scriptures as God’s Word and all its teachings as infallible truth is shared by the Lutheran Church with all Christian churches. . . . It is taken for granted that when church fellowship is being determined, it cannot be granted to non-Christians but only to those who, with all Christians, accept the Word of God in all its parts as infallible truth.” (Theologische Monatshefte IV (1871), p. 278)

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This from a forebearer of the ELCA, a church body that has no appearance of holding to Fritschel's statement. But it appears that the old Iowa Synod, a Synod not as strong as Walther and the old Missouri Synod on Inspiration, would even go so far as to question whether LC–MS Prof. Joel Biermann can even be regarded as a Christian, let alone a Lutheran. [2024-12-12: Cp. also Franz Pieper in his Das Fundament essay: "This raises the question of whether it is still possible for someone to still stand in the Christian faith while denying the divine authority of Holy Scripture.  We must say: Certainly not if this denial is given its practical consequence."] — [2024-11-26: Also the 1886 Synodical Conference pronounced those who do not teach the full divinity of Holy Scripture to be ones who “no longer stand in faith.”]

      Biermann makes another assertion in his lecture that wants to shame Lutherans. We compare this with a well known "Walkout" sympathizer in Part 3…