AG1b: Lutheran Doctrine: The Word of God, Hermeneutics short course (put Bible in the furnace?)

      This continues from Part AG1a (Table of Contents in Part AG1a) in a series presenting Walther's essays to the Western District that supported his theme "That Only Through the Doctrine of the Lutheran Church is All Glory Given to God Alone". — Continuing the 1873 Western District essay: In Walther's Thesis III, part 1, he gives a somewhat briefer treatment of the Word of God than he did in several other writings, so this may serve for those wanting a short course on Lutheran hermeneutics. Most LCMS historians overlook this subject in Walther's 1873 essay, including Prof. Raymond Surburg. Only Prof. Thomas Manteufel makes brief mention of it in his 2004/2005 Pieper Lectures essay “C. F. W. Walther and the Doctrine of Scripture in the Early History of the Missouri Synod”. — From the official report pp. 41-52:

Notable Quotes:

Thesis III, 1: The Word of God

42: "Luther did not, indeed, leave a scientific system of this doctrine; but if you only read how he speaks of the Scriptures, …[he had the] same faith which Gerhard and Quenstedt and Calov" [Cp. with 1886 writing.]

42: "Here our Church confesses that every word, every phrase, every repetition of any word, every abbreviation, the whole way of speaking has its origin in the Holy Spirit, who has inspired everything,"

43: "whoever commits himself to the symbolic books…and does not believe this doctrine is a wretched scoundrel."

43: "It is not Isaiah, not Moses, not Paul who speaks, but it is the Holy Spirit who speaks"

42-43: Apology of the Augsburg Confession: "Do they think that these words [passages of Scripture] fell inconsiderately from the Holy Ghost?"; "In short, this passage shows that the doctrine of the inspiration of Holy Scripture, as it was presented by our old dogmatists in the seventeenth century, already lies in the symbolic books."

44: Modern theologians say Scripture contains errors: "some historical, some astronomical, some physical, some mathematical, some chronological."

45: "every man can take everything from Scripture…He needs no pope, no council, no church, no pastor"

45-46: The Popes diminish God's honor "by making the authority of Scripture dependent on the authority of the church alone" [Prof. Joel Biermann makes Scripture dependent on "Tradition". Also see recent Vatican  news of  "Mariology, not being governed by Scripture Alone"]

46: The Apocrypha: "are not to be regarded as Holy Scripture, but only to be read carefully". [See other blog post "Walther on the Apocrypha: "bad crumbs" (Purgatory)" for more on this.]

47: "if Scripture, which God made, were an imperfect work, then God would no longer be God."

47: "we do not mean to say that the Bible is a person, but that it judges just like a person"

48: Erroring theologians say "all heresies have arisen from the Bible." [Cp. Piepkorn and Biermann speak like this: “biblicism” produces “Jehovah’s Witnesses”, “Mormons”]

48: "Luther was not a prophet and apostle who could not have been mistaken. … We therefore place Luther's translation below the original text." [Against Prof. Cameron Mackenzie's attack on Walther, that Walther  "carefully avoided any reference to sinful indulgence or weakness" in Luther.]

49: Reformed say "yes" when Lutherans say "The Bible is God's Word, literally inspired by the Holy Spirit" But if Lutherans apply this to 'This is my body; this is my blood'… they [Reformed] make excuses." [See this blog post.]

50: "For the Lutherans, Scripture is the sole norm, rule and guideline of all faith and life. Catholics, on the other hand, place tradition and the authority of the Church above Scripture. [See this comment on current Mariology in Roman Catholic Church.]

50: "…for the Lutheran doctrine is nothing more than a repetition of what is written in the Bible"

51: "we say so confidently and cheerfully to the whole world and to all sects, 'You are wrong, we are right,'"

      We have already covered the theology of Profs. James Voelz and Joel Biermann elsewhere.  In a similar way as Biermann, Rev. Dr. John Bombaro, a prominent LC–MS pastor, said the following in a 2013 essay concerning those who he called "biblicists", those who believed that "the Bible, down to the details of its words, consists of and is identical with God’s very own words written inerrantly in human language":

"the dictum of Frederick Nietzsche seems to obtain: 'Convictions are more dangerous enemies of the truth than lies.' Enemies of the populace, of course, must be sequestered if not eliminated, especially when such repellent and bigoted religious content indoctrinates otherwise innocent children."

"Must be sequestered"? "Eliminated"? "Repellent and bigoted religious content"? These are the pronouncements of Rev. Dr. (Pastor) John Bombaro against what Walther taught. One cannot think of a more dangerous theologian for Christians than Dr. Bombaro. He is the current senior pastor at St. James Lutheran in Lafayette, Indiana. How would Walther respond to Dr. Bombaro? 

"You are wrong, we are right."

In the next Part AG1c…