A little over 9 years ago, I received correspondence from a Lutheran pastor on a certain topic. It was then discovered that he was from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) and so it is no surprise that he was not entirely in agreement with certain points of my blog. But then he surprised me by stating the following:
“You are the only person I know who studies extensively all of Old Missouri theological history…”.
This ELCA pastor had some knowledge of what was going on in the "Missouri Synod" of today, what the narrative in the Synod was. And he confirmed for me what I had largely concluded in my return to my Lutheran Christian faith, that Walther and Pieper, and the writings of the old Missouri Synod, were most certainly not held in high regard by many, if not most, in that Synod.
I wish that the judgment of this pastor was not actually true, and indeed I am aware of some Lutherans around the world who recognize the greatness of the fathers of the Missouri Synod in the Lutheran Church. But when I see LC–MS writers and theologians bypass these fathers, and go back to the likes of Luther, Chemnitz and the earliest Lutheran theologians, I know that they don't really know Luther. That is why I named my blog
“Back To Luther”,
because I found Luther first in the writings of C. F. W. Walther and Franz Pieper.
(We will hear a surprising testimony on this from an LC-MS author/pastor/theologian in an upcoming blog post.)
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