DL3c: A. L. Gräbner—a prince in the realm of knowledge

      This concludes from Part 3b (and an Excursus) (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting Der Lutheraner, 1888-1934, in English. — The wide range of knowledge that A. L. Graebner, the third editor, possessed is astonishing.  I counted a dozen fields of knowledge from this history. But his writings showed that he used them all only in the service of his theology.  From Der Lutheraner, vol. 76 (1920), p. 5-8 [EN]:

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August Gräbner.

When Gräbner was a student at the high school in Fort Wayne, he was hindered many times by eye weakness and missed many classes. What he missed then, he later caught up with by iron diligence, given his excellent talent, and overtook others who were formerly ahead of him. After graduating from the seminary at St. Louis, he served as a teacher in the Lutheran college at St. Louis, and later in the college and seminary of the Wisconsin Synod at Watertown and Milwaukee, Wis. In the year of Walther's death he was appointed professor of theology at the St. Louis seminary. He was well equipped to do so, possessing thorough knowledge in all branches of theology. At the meeting of the Synodical Conference in 1886, the last one that Walther attended, Gräbner had the presentation. After he had given his lecture on inspiration, which was exhaustive of the subject, Walther remarked that the lecturer had dealt with the matter so exhaustively, having anticipated everything, absolutely everything, so that nothing remained for others to add; and he [Walther] really only pointed out the deviations from the pure doctrine in the writings of some German theologians in modern times.

Gräbner was a man of self-control and cool calmness; he had a distinguished appearance and was also a prince in the realm of knowledge. If, according to a published outline, theology is the queen to whom all sciences are subservient, [p. 7] the theologian Gräbner was rightly, and not without success, anxious to seize the territory subservient to his queen. He was at home in the field of philosophy, mathematics, the old and a whole number of new languages, literature, history; he was also at home in the more distant fields of jurisprudence, natural sciences, medicine, and he was also no stranger to the field of art, music, painting and poetry.

Gräbner was called upon to fill the gap in the editorial staff of the “Lutheraner” caused by Günther's death. Under his editorship, the “Lutheraner” celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. In preparation and introduction to it, Gräbner wrote a number of articles: “The beginnings of the ‘Lutheraner’ and what we can learn from it"; “The reception of the ‘Lutheraner’ once and now"; “The usefulness of the ‘Lutheraner’ once and now"; ‘The Lutheraner’ as a synodical organ The first number of the “Lutheraner” of September 7, 1844, was issued in exact replica with No. 1 of the 51st volume. 

To him, too, the highly learned man, God's Word was the life element, the Alpha and Omega of his theological thinking and judgment. He made especially the application of the divine Word to the life of Christians the subject of many “Lutheraner” articles. Looking far and wide, he surveys the rich organization of Christian life in its various ramifications, expressions and relationships, and examines them against the yardstick of divine truth. He generously lets appear whole series of articles, articles which, if necessary, complement each other, interrelate with each other and together form a whole. These series of articles, also dealing with contemporary conditions, are extremely rich in teaching, admonition, warning and consolation for the edification of the church. As a master of language, he finds the expression corresponding to his thoughts, the representation suitable for his purpose. The stream of his speech flows majestically, full and deep and yet clear and transparent like crystal. Thus, in a series of articles, he treats the Christian's relationship to God's Word: Of the right fear of God's Word; of the right love for God's Word; of the right trust in God's Word. In 1893 and 1894, he examines the life of a Christian in civil relations and in relation to the world: Of incurring debts frivolously; of saving; the A. P. A. (American Protective Association); women's rights; on corpse burning; of striking; on the labor question; in the world, not of the world, etc. Then in 1895 follows the precious series of articles from Christian Church Life: The local Christian congregation; the establishment of a Christian congregation; of public worship; the Christian congregational school; the doctrine and practice of our synod; of congregational meetings; baptism and confirmation; the care of confirmed youth; church charity; of bequests for church purposes; the church magazine. Stöckhardt and other colleagues of Gräbner contributed to this series of articles: on the establishment and maintenance of the public preaching ministry; Christian teaching; the parish council; private pastoral care; confession; church discipline; church missionary activity; the synodical community. — The Lord of the Church called Prof. Gräbner to heavenly rest on December 7, 1904, after a long period of infirmity from diligent, blessed work. ——————

The three dear men of great merit to the Church, Walther, Günther and Gräbner, have gone to the rest of God's people. They have devoted a considerable part of their lives to the care and work for the “Lutheraner”; [p. 8] they have laid down and left behind in the columns of the “Lutheraner” an inestimable wealth of Christian teaching and experience for the edification of God's Church — useful and necessary not merely for the days gone by, but also for the present. Blessed is he who knows how to lift up this treasure!

May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers! May the course of the “Lutheraner” be a blessing also in the future!                                                                    J. S.

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I was surprised that A. L. Graebner was the actual author of the "breathtaking" 1886 essay to the Synodical Conference that defended the pure doctrine of the Inspiration of Holy Scripture. I had thought that because Walther was present that he at least delivered a portion of it. But the above history reports that Walther's only involvement was to show the "deviations from the pure doctrine in the writings of some German theologians in modern times." Nevertheless we get confirmation that Walther heartily approved of Graebner's work. I would invite the reader to read, or reread, that presentation of A. L. Graebner because of its thorough coverage of this contentious doctrine even today, even within the LC-MS. May the name of A. L. Graebner be forever blest because of this essay. — It would certainly have grieved Prof. Graebner that his own son Theodore would so dramatically cause division within the Missouri Synod! — In the next Part 4a, a review of a very special book of Pieper's essays in English. But first, another Excursus publishing Walther's book review of Graebner's great biography of Luther.

Hist9: Chpt 5—Older Synods, Methodists

      This continues from Part 8 (Table of Contents in Part 3), a series presenting an English translation of Pastor Christian Hochstetter's 1885 496-page book entitled (abbreviated) The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884. — Hochstetter moves his focus from Wyneken to a general overview of the conditions of the Lutherans in America at the time of Missouri's founding. Then he gives the sad history of the Methodists and their enthusiasm, or as Luther called them, Schwärmerei.

Some quotes from Chapter 5: (p. 119-146)
120: "The General Synod, founded in 1820… stated officially that although they had examined Luther's doctrinal structure according to God's Word and found it to be essentially correct, they were on common ground with the United Church of Germany."
121: "The General Synod therefore also refrains from obliging its preachers to use the Lutheran symbols."

124: "It was to be regretted that the old Pennsylvanian Synod, which regards Heinrich Melchior Muehlenberg, who had been sent from Halle, as its founder, also joined the General Synod."
126: "the Ohio Synod, which emerged from these conferences by refusing to enter the General Synod…"
127: "…the Lutheran symbols first, which were very rarely found in a pastor’s library at that time"
131: "since precisely the Lutheran confessional writings in all humility subordinate themselves without exception to the Holy Scriptures"
136: "Sihler sent a memoir … in which he finally reproached the Ohio Synod for using the Lutheran Confessions only as a figurehead"
140: "How can the poor sinner be assured of his justification when he has heard the Word of absolution and the word of salvation? How can the poor sinner be assured of his justification if he disregards the word of absolution and the holy sacrament? What good is all the talk of grace, when this grace is conditioned by the works of man?"
142: "they, the Methodists, are the ones who despise God's Word and setup their own work"

Images of men appearing in Chapter 5:

     Sihler     ———     B. Kurtz    ———    P. Henkel   ———  Lehmann   ———   Lochner  ———  W. Nast      ——      Whitefield
                Schmucker   ——   Muehlenberg——— W. Schmidt   ———    Brohm    ———    J. Albrecht  ——— J. Wesley

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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation.  All hyperlinks, highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine. All internal hyperlinks are active in this embedded window, external links should be opened in a new tab or window.

      Another reliable early author of Missouri's history in these matters is Prof. A.L. Graebner, although Hochstetter was closer to the spiritual struggles because of his personal involvement.  He credits Hochstetter's History here.  Unfortunately his massive 726-page work in 1892, Geschichte Der Lutherischen Kirche in America,  is in the German language and remains untranslated (maybe I will tackle this project of translation in the future). Prof. Graebner also authored an English version  (Half a Century of Sound Lutheranism in America: A Brief Sketch of the History of the Missouri Synod, 1893), but it is very brief at only 30 pages, which leaves us English-speaking later generations poorer because if it.  Of course Prof. Friedrich Bente's 1919 American Lutheranism books in English, volume I, volume II (also German edition), greatly helped the situation. After the break below, the rest of the story follows on why later volumes of Bente were not published; then further comments on modern LCMS histories. — In the next Part 10, Chapter 6.

A.L. Graebner, passing of a true teacher- Pieper’s address; Part 3

[2017-07-24: This address was also translated by M. Harrison in his At Home in the House of My Fathers, pp. 617-619.]
      This continues a series of blogs (from Part 2, Table of Contents in Part 1) presenting Dr. Franz Pieper's words of comfort at the passing of fellow teachers of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

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      After Prof. Günther's passing, it would be another 10+ years before President Pieper would again have to speak to an assembly of mourners for a fellow colleague.  This time, in 1904, it was for Prof. A.L. Graebner.  Pieper's address was taken from Der Lutheraner, January 3, 1905, p. 3-4.  Translation by BackToLuther.

Memorial address at the funeral Dr. A. L. Gräbner,

held in the Aula of the Concordia Seminary by F. Pieper.

A teacher has been called by God from our midst. A man has been taken by God out of our midst who was first placed here in our institution as the teacher of the future ministers of the Church, and then served the Church with teachings in wide circles, beyond the borders of our country. God has put an end to this active life. He called his servant that his work  was at an end.  We think that this call came too early. But we Christians also know that our thinking is not the measure by which things are measured in the kingdom of God. Thus we submit ourselves to God's will, but we listen to the reminder which God in His Word (Heb. 13:7) calls to the Church:

Remember your teachers who have spoken the Word of God to you.

Teachers are one of the gifts of God to His Church. The Son of God has devoted much to his Church, and His care is still directed to His Church. He has first redeemed them, that is, purchased with His own blood, from death and condemnation. Then He also gave her His Word through His Prophets and Apostles, which she now possesses in the Holy Scriptures. But even more! He has also arranged a personal teaching office in the Church, whereby His Word is to go forth, and He gives to his Church, up to the very Last Day, men who are capable of teaching not only himself, but others as well. Thus the teachers belong to the gifts of Christ to his Church. Teachers of the Word of God are not a gift which can be bought with gold or silver, but they are a gift which the Son of God has acquired with His blood, and are distributed now to His Church as the exalted Lord of the Church at the right hand of God. This is what the Scriptures teach. St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, (Eph. 4:8): “When he ascended up on high, ... he gave gifts unto men.” And in the enumeration of gifts are expressly named the teachers: “He Has put some to apostles, some to prophets, some to evangelists, some to shepherds and teachers.” (Eph. 4:11.)  The Church is well served when she is amply supplied with teachers of the Word. Thus, in the description of the prosperity of the Church of the New Testament (Psalm 68:11): “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it..” And the Church goes bad when [page 3, col. 2] the right teachers of the Word are missing. Where the teachers of the Word of God are absent, the of Word of Christ is fulfilled: “They fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd,” Matt. 9:36. Therefore, the Christians should deal with their teachers well during their lifetime. “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.,” 1 Timothy 5:17.  And when they are dead, let them remember.  “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God.” [Hebrews 13:7]

It is true that not all of us, who appear within the Church as teachers, are to be counted among the gifts of God. In the Church there are, under God's approval, teachers who teach not the Word of God, but their own Word, as the Holy Scriptures describe such teachers in Jer. 23:16. “They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.” Such teachers are not a blessing, but a plague for the Church. Such teachers do not praise God, but He threatens them with his wrath, Jer. 23:31: "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.” The Christians shall not hold themselves to such teachers, but flee after the Apostle’s exhortation Rom. 16:17: “Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them..”  Such a teacher was not the one who has gone home. He was a true teacher, a gift from God. He was one of the teachers who, with great care, carried forward the Word of God pure and unadulterated, and with all sincerity, rejected all false doctrine, which rises above and without the Word of God in the Church. In the hot struggle for the divine truth which our Church had been destined for the past twenty-five years, in the struggle for the Gospel of grace, he was at the forefront of the struggle.  Thus, the one who went home belonged to the gifts of God to his Church, and therefore the Word also applies to him: "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.” [Heb. 13:7]  God has given the orthodox Lutheran Church of our country loyal and proficient teachers and preachers in large numbers. What is in abundance, that is easily respected lightly. It should not be so. Let us beware of the contempt of the gifts of God, for that is the way you lose it.

A true teacher must wait out his office under  self-denial, in disinterested spirit, in the profession of God. Neither good rumors nor nasty rumors, neither praise nor reproof, neither abundance nor want, should alienate him from his office, or make him weary.  Such teachers are rare. They were rare even in the apostolic church. The Apostle Paul complained in the letter to the Philippians (Phil. 2:21) of a number of teachers who were working next to him: “For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's..”  We must now confess with gratitude to God that God has given a great number of preachers and teachers to our synod, as far as people can judge, who have not the ruling manner of themselves, but look to Christ Jesus and His Church. To these also belonged the one who has gone home. He was prepared for service for others, without asking: What is in it for me? He has served the Church [page 4, col. 1] for 25 years – nine years in the Wisconsin Synod, and sixteen years in our Synod – as a theological teacher and has been satisfied with food and clothing. He could leave no earthly property. That is why we are reminded of the following: “Remember your teachers which ...  have spoken unto you the word of God.”

Luther, in his last sermon, which he preached at Wittenberg in January, 1546, [AE 51:377; SL 12:1168-1177] asked his hearers to ask God with all their heart for right teachers of His Word. This request is also very necessary for us, since God has taken such a tried and tested teacher from our midst. Indeed, God does not look at our sin and ingratitude, but acts with us according to His great grace and mercy.  He gives us and our children pure, faithful, self-denying teachers of His Word for the sake of Christ our Savior. Amen.

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      For myself, I have found the most edifying teaching from Prof. A.L. Graebner to be his presentation of the 1886 essay to the Synodical Conference on the "Divinity of Holy Scripture".  This essay proclaimed to all the world that the Synodical Conference stood on Holy Scripture, and defended against all attacks on the doctrine of Verbal Inspiration.  —  Pieper mentioned that Graebner had traveled outside the country in his work as a teacher.  I believe he traveled also to Australia for which the faithful Church in Australia continues to remember today.
      In the next Part 4, the last colleague of Pieper to pass away (or "go home") in the above faculty picture would be George Stoeckhardt.  And Pieper's address for him would include a grand tour of most of the previous teachers of Old Missouri.

Old Missouri Library– Theological Quarterly (Part 4)

This post continues the presentation of old Missouri resources.  However this post and the next Part 5 are different from the previous Parts 1, 2, and 3 in that they are from English sources from the old (German) Missouri Synod, not German language sources.

I have mixed feelings on presenting the English language publications from the old (German) Missouri Synod.  Why?  It was the German language that Walther and Pieper used in their writings of theology.  And Luther used German (along with Latin) in his writings.  And these writers were the ones who best "gathered the luminous rays of the Gospel" and are the greatest "helpers of joy" for Christians.  Yet the English language removes a huge barrier to our modern world which has virtually abandoned the German language for English (think Internet and programming languages).

Prof. A.L. Graebner was the main early editor and contributor to the journal Theological Quarterly.  It was published for 24 years from 1897 through 1920, later replaced by the Theological Monthly (see Part 5).  And although I have some reservations on using him as the main source of Christian theology, especially compared to Pieper's Christian Dogmatics books, yet I did find that he wrote fairly well on the Doctrine of Justification.  In the issue of October, 1901 (Vol. 5, page 194) appeared the following in the installment "Soteriology – Justification" from his collection of essays under the title "Doctrinal Theology":

But by the same judicial act by which he pronounced him guilty who was the world's substitute, God acquitted and absolved the world whose sins and guilt he laid to the charge of the Mediator.  God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, NOT IMPUTING their trespasses unto them.(2 Cor. 5:19)  That their trespasses were not imputed unto them left them that were sinners in themselves sinless and guiltless in the judgment of God. The imputation of the sins of the world to Christ was eo ipso a justification of the world.  And as the imputation of our sins to Christ was general and complete, all the sins, the iniquity of us all, being laid on the Lamb of God, (Isaiah 53:6, John 1:29, 1 John 2:2) so the absolution and justification of sinners in that judgment of God indicated a complete reconciliation of the world unto himself, inasmuch as our iniquities, which had separated between us and our God, our sins, which had hid his face from us, (Isaiah 53:8) were imputed to and atoned for by our substitute.... the resurrection of Christ was a promulgation of the justification of the world.

It is this teaching of Prof. A.L. Graebner that caused Franz Pieper to speak the following words at his burial in 1905 (published in Harrison's book At Home in the House of My Fathers, page 618):

He was a true teacher, a gift of God.

It is sad that the son of Prof. A.L. Graebner, Prof. Theodore Graebner, became so confused on the above teaching of his father on Justification that he would actually call it into question by questioning Walther's and Pieper's defense of it against opponents... and so end the old (German) Missouri Synod, give rise to today's (English) LC-MS, and end the Synodical Conference.

I see that CPH is still offering A.L. Graebner's book Outlines of Doctrinal Theology in their listing (also Amazon from another publisher).  However, it is my recommendation to any readers interested in pure Christian doctrine to first read the books of Prof. Franz Pieper – his Christian Dogmatics.

Other contributors to this English language journal included W.H.T. Dau, Wm. Dallmann, F. Kuegele, C.F. Drewes, Louis Wessel, and Th. Graebner.

What follows are download links for my selections of scanned portions of Theological Quarterly.  There are over 2500 scans – about 5000 pages from these 24 volumes... many treasures – all in English!  But why only portions?  I was too busy spending more time on the German publications... (see above).  I found that several volumes are fully available elsewhere and have provided links to them.  Here they are – articles on Aurifaber to "Wiclif", articles on Paul Gerhardt, evolution, astronomy and dozens of other subjects.  All files except the Table of Contents are PDF files.  Many volumes contain indexes at the back for reference on all subjects covered beyond my file of all the Table of Contents:

TQ-Table of Contents.DOC <<– Document containing title of all articles

TQ01-1897 (31 MB-Ggl Bks)(Hathi 2019-08-30) TQ02-1898 (Ggl Bks) TQ03-1899  (Ggl Bks) TQ04-1900  (48 MB-Hathi) TQ05-1901  (Google Bk) TQ06-1902 (Google Bk) TQ07-1903  (14 MB-Ggl Bks) TQ08-1904  (7 MB-Ggl Bks) TQ09-1905 (Google Bk) TQ10-1906 (Google Bk) TQ11-1907 (Google Bk) TQ12-1908 (Google Bk)

TQ13-1909  (9 MB) (Google Bk) TQ14-1910  (3 MB) (Google Bk) TQ15-1911  (9 MB) (Google Bk) TQ16-1912  (6 MB) (Google Bk) TQ17-1913  (5 MB) (Google Bk) TQ18-1914  (6 MB) (Google Bk) TQ19-1915  (9 MB) (Google Bk) TQ20-1916  (7 MB) (Google Bk) TQ21-1917  (14 MB) (Google Bks) TQ22-1918  (10 MB) (Google Bk) TQ23-1919  (8 MB) (Google Bk) TQ24-1920  (8 MB) (Google Bks)

[2016-08-14: Updated table, more Google Books discovered; 06-21: Updated table -- added many references to Google Books;]
The reader is advised to use proper Christian judgment in reading these articles.  Although they may be from the time period of the old (German) Missouri Synod, yet I have detected seeds of questionable thoughts from some of the contributors (i.e. from Th. Graebner).  For an example, I see that W.H.T. Dau wrote a series on "Faith" beginning in the 1906 volume 10.  But I would rather urge the reader get the purest teaching on "Faith" from Pieper's essay on Walther's teaching concerning "Justification and Faith", Part 16 here.  Again I say that it was Walther and Pieper (in their German writings) who were the most forceful in defending the pure Gospel.

As mentioned above, the next Part 5 will provide download links to the journal that followed this one – Theological Monthly.

Geocentrism (Fixed earth)

[2017-10-02: added note in red at bottom]

What is it?  It is the term used by Wikipedia (also "Modern Geocentrism") and others to describe the scriptural teaching of a fixed earth where the sun is said to go up (or rise) and go down. This site (archived) has a listing of the many scripture verses speaking of the motion of the sun and moon in relation to the earth.

We applaud those who teach creationism in the face of modern "science".  However most of those creationists do not uphold the scriptural teaching of a fixed earth.

But the old (German) Missouri Synod held up the scripture teaching on this point.  And still does in the writings of C.F.W. Walther and Franz Pieper (Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1, pg 473).  The Wikipedia article on Modern Geocentrism says "In the United States between 1870 and 1920, for example, various members of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod published articles disparaging Copernican astronomy, and geocentrism was widely taught within the synod during that period."  How the author even knew of the Missouri Synod's teaching makes me wonder that he would call himself a "Lutheran" or even a member of the LC-MS. But his statement is not quite correct on the ending year of 1920 since Franz Pieper taught scriptural "geocentrism" until he died in 1931 and specifically wrote about Copernicus in Lehre und Wehre in November 1926.  And here is what Pieper wrote in 1924 in his Christliche Dogmatik, vol. 1, page 577 (Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1, page 473, 472):

• "It is unworthy of a Christian to interpret Scripture, which he knows to be God's own Word, according to human opinions (hypotheses), and that includes the Copernican cosmic system, or to have others thus to interpret Scripture to him."

• "No matter what size, compared with the earth, men may ascribe to sun, moon, and stars, these celestial bodies have no independent history and no independent meaning and function, but their history and significance or function are dependent upon the earth.  These facts are positively taught in Holy Scripture."

I have a note in the margin at this point that Prof. A. C. Repp scoffed at this passage in the July 1964 issue of Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly.  Unfortunately today's LC-MS (Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) has abandoned it's heritage.

The Wikipedia article continues (see article) :

"However, in the 1902 Concordia Theological Quarterly, Prof. A. L. Graebner claimed that the synod had no doctrinal position on geocentrism, heliocentrism, or any scientific model, unless it were to contradict Scripture. He stated that any possible declarations of geocentrists within the synod did not set the position of the church body as a whole."

This article in the Concordia Theological Quarterly largely defends the position of the Missouri Synod which upholds the divine teaching of scripture.  But it leaves a little to be desired since even the writer of the Wikipedia article thinks the Missouri Synod teaching was ambiguous. Professor A. L. Graebner  in this article attaches the basis of the heliocentric system or Copernican system to an "assumption of millions of years of siderial existence in our universe" (page 42) which excluded the possibility of the creation of the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day of creation. He then dismisses the Copernican system and the heliocentric system on the basis of this assumption of "millions of years" rather than that scripture teaches the primacy of the earth.  But  Franz Pieper and C.F.W. Walther (and Martin Luther), although dismissing the "millions of years" theories, dismissed the Copernican system based on the scriptural teaching of the primacy of the earth over all celestial bodies.

What did Walther teach?  Here is my translation from his German of a review of a new publication in the April 1, 1873 issue of Der Lutheraner magazine, (volume 29 (1872-1873), page 103):

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Astronomical discussion about the infallibility of the Copernican solar system. By J. C. W. L., St. Louis, Mo. 1873.

                A little writing of the preceding title has just arisen from our Synod printer.  It is small - it includes only 26 pages in the format of "Lehre und Wehre" - but a gold kernel in the latest literature, that unfortunately! mostly is a rubbish heap.

                As you know, the newer astronomers or stargazers, claim by the Copernican system in which the earth moves around the Sun, that the Bible is thoroughly refuted and overturned according to which the Sun moves around the Earth; and yet, these gentlemen require that Christians now believe as firmly the Copernican system as previously the Bible religion.  Because they say whoever does not belong to the profession of astronomy, has no right to judge about what they teach; it is therefore a real shame that there still are people who are not professional astronomers as they are and yet do not all want to believe their every word.  Through these mighty sayings and bulls of excommunication these unfailing would-be astronomical popes now hunt indeed the people of the world in general into the buck's horn; in order not to fall into the stargazers spell and to be considered enlightened, they recite everything in blind simple faith what these "infallible" popes tell them. They admit patiently that they might not understand astronomy and therefore could not judge it, but if one should hold them to be clever, they should close their eyes delicately and only believe firmly.  But with Christians it is different. So firmly they believe their God at his Word, so oppositely on human concepts are strongly convinced; there they want to be persuaded by irrefutable reasons, otherwise they won't believe it.

                  The pamphlet shows with the title but how little Christians have cause to hold so infallible the Copernican system, as astronomers give it and the would-be enlightened view it.  The author has namely the happy idea to once catechize the astronomers or rather to examine them and, since they are difficult to bring to a response, to get themselves their answer from their own writings.  As it turns out then, that the men themselves in no uncertain terms have to admit that there simply is nothing with the certainty and security of their system, that they themselves do not believe and only demand of the uninitiated belief in their infallibility. One should read the pamphlet, and one will soon be convinced that this really is so. The writer has only asked the questions, the answers are always word for word taken from the writings of astronomers themselves, and describes the place where the answer stands against.

                Whoever wants to be enlightened in the points of the newer solar system should read this pamphlet and he will find full satisfaction. The pamphlet costs 15 cents in hard cover and is handled by our general agent Mr. Barthel.

W.

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If the reader of this article is a Christian, know this: the world will constantly assail any faith you have in the Bible by the constant refrain of "millions and billions of years" and the secondary place of the Earth in the universe (as this Wikipedia article states "the Earth does not hold any obvious preferred place within the Solar System").  It will not stop doing this nor will Scripture be changed.  Scripture testifies to this when it says in John 1: 10,11: "... the world knew him not... and his own received him not".  Modern science wants you to believe their theories on the origins of the universe.  But the Bible is true... believe it, in all it's teachings. The sun does rise over the earth and the Son did bring salvation for all.
(see another later post here for more of Walther's teaching on this subject, and modern Lutheran theologian , Matthew Becker's doubt of the Bible teaching.)
[2017-10-02: see this later post publishing an English translation of Lindemann's pamphlet]