This continues from Part EC9 (Table of Contents in Part EC1), a series restoring availability of English translations of several of Walther's convention essays that have seemingly been abandoned by Concordia Publishing House. — In this fifth of eight essays, Western District 1868, elucidating the Theses in Walther's True Visible Church book, he covers XVII—XVIII A. This essay covers two main topics: the Scriptures themselves and the Doctrine of Justification. — There is an added bonus of a Synod discussion of "a paper by one of its members" [not Walther] on the Doctrine of the Antichrist. But Walther's presence gives this discussion his stamp of approval. —
Notable Quotes:
19: "groups that deny God's Word as God's Word are outside the church; such groups in which God's Word is still partially present are sects…the Lutheran Church says: "It is written"."
19: "Until the Reformation, no one … dared to say that one word… in Scripture was not inspired by the Holy Spirit, not even under the papacy."
20: "But for the Lord to say to the Jews: …"the Scriptures cannot be broken" [John 10:35] is worth more than the whole world."
20-21: "In the papacy, the Word of God … has been abolished…by equating tradition with Scripture" [also by Concordia Seminary Prof. Joel Biermann in a lecture to seminarians, see JB01]
21: "Everyone should judge his sermon by the golden scales of Holy Scripture and not engage in extemporizing".
21: "…those who do not accept the whole Word of God will not be able to hold on; for example, in matters of revolution, slavery, usury, where the whole world stands against us."
22: "one cannot fight with the modern theologians, because they do not recognize the Bible"
23: "Presbyterians are appalled by the newer theology in Germany and maintain that every word is inspired."
24: "The Lord calls the doctrine derived from the Scriptures "the Scriptures"."
29: "Nowhere in the Bible does it expressly say of Christ the Savior that He is my Savior. But it does say that He is the Savior of the world, …from which everyone can and should conclude: I also belong to the world, to all people; therefore He is also my Savior." [Universal Justification]
30: The Lutheran Church "makes the doctrine of…justification the foundation, core and star of all doctrine".
34: The sects "think of justification as something that happens first in the heart of man, whereas it is a quality in the heart of God." [Objective Justification.]
Paper on the Doctrine of the Antichrist:
35: Importance: "It must be remembered, however, that this doctrine is contained in the Scriptures, and that it speaks of it clearly and at length."
37: "…our theologians themselves Romanize much in doctrine and practice."
40: "but the pope is more dangerous than all of them." [all sects].
41: "…no Lutheran theologian could go to the Council of Trent, because they did not want to swear such an oath [of allegiance to the Pope]."
42: "the Reformation would not have been possible if the doctrine of justification had not been brought back to the fore, for without it the Antichrist… could not have been discovered."
44: "there are now Lutherans who, despite the clear teaching of Scripture and our confessions, do not want to consider the Pope to be the Antichrist… [we consider] them not to be Lutherans in this respect." [LCMS?]
46: "Every Christian is obliged by God's clear Word to recognize, hate and fight the pope as the revealed Antichrist."
In the following, underlining follows Walther's emphasis, which is sometimes missing in the 1992 CPH translation. Paragraph breaks follow the 1992 translation, many hyperlinks added:
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