AG4c: Means of Grace: Immutability; Conversion, Antichrist

      This continues from Part AG4b (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". — The Western District conventions were where  Walther delivered some of his most notable convention essays. One could almost say this series provides the basics for a dogmatics text book, much like his Baier-Walther Compendium series, (which I am working on now). — This blog covers point 4. on the Means of Grace, then a short section on Conversion (pp. 63-71):

1. Foundation (pp. 25-29)
2. Validity (pp. 29-41)
3. Power (pp. 42-56)
4. Immutability (pp. 56-63)

On pp. 56-63, Walther "calls a spade a spade", i.e. "the Pope is the Antichrist", just as the Lutheran symbolic books do:

Notable Quotes:

Immutability (& Antichrist):

56: "no man…can change the means of grace as God has ordained them"

56: "it is self-evident that if God decrees something, the creature cannot change it…But this is what the papacy has actually done.…has put the stamp of the Antichrist on itself…this happened at the Council of Constance."

58: "The papists…do not violate what they have ordained [one form], but what the Lord Christ has ordained [both forms, bread and wine] they think they may change."

58: The Pope "cannot say otherwise, because he does not believe that the Bible is God's Word"

59: "it is called a Missourian quirk that we teach that the pope is the Antichrist"

60: Papists: "claimed to be the Church of God, and yet consciously departed from the commands of God."

60: "The Lord expressly says that the Holy Spirit would not teach them anything new, so those words of the papists were also a blasphemy of the Holy Spirit."

60: Luther "did not want to suffer the honor of God to be taken away from Him with regard to the immutability of the means of grace."

61: "Where it was necessary to give God the glory, Luther did not remain silent"

61: "Where is there a hell for the rascal [the Pope] who…pretends to have the power to make something wiser and better than Christ?"

62: "But an anti-Christian spirit is also revealed in the fact that the modern theologians 

• make God's Word uncertain, 
• deny the Lutheran doctrine of the inspiration of Holy Scripture, 
• leave the decision of doctrinal disputes not to the Word of God but to the pronouncement of the Church, and 
• turn the teachings of Scripture into open questions."

62: Modern theologians "do not believe that the Bible is God's Word". [See p. 58 above on the Pope]

62: "that is the terrible thing, that they [papists] admit it [inspired Word], and yet ascribe to themselves the power to depart from it. In this way they elevate themselves above everything that is called God"

Conversion: 

63: "Lutherans "maintain that God converts man all by Himself."

63: "God must be the cause that so many are not converted and saved. So says our reason…"

64: "If man wants to do anything for his conversion, it is all in vain, indeed, only an obstacle to it"

64: "this much we know: they willfully resisted, for if they had not willfully resisted, they would certainly have been converted"

65: A Christian: "I have not acquired it [my salvation] by my own doing, I have not prayed for it, I have not fought for it, it has come upon me in this way!"

65: "Just as a fish is caught with a hook, so people are caught by the Word of God"

65: "This is biblical doctrine, this is also Lutheran doctrine, which gives all glory to God alone"

65: Lutheran doctrine, "an abomination and an annoyance to all Pharisees in the world, even to those who rail against the Pharisees" [I. e., the "enemy of my enemy is [not necessarily] my friend".]

66: "Baptists and Methodists, talk so much about grace…but that is nothing but empty talk, it is not true…they may say so with their mouths, but basically they attribute everything to themselves"

67: "Many people imagine conversion to be like being placed at a crossroads…now man is given the choice"

68: "as soon as man is so far advanced that he can use the divine powers of grace, he is also converted"

68: "there is no middle ground [of the Pietists] between death and life. Either a person is still dead in sin, or he is awakened from his death of sin"

68-69: "God stands before the heart of man, as it were, like a general standing before a castle he wants to conquer…[the man] always lets God's bullets hit his inner being, and he resists, until finally God conquers the castle of his heart, then he cannot help it, he must surrender to the victor; that is conversion."

69: "Holy Scripture compares conversion with creation"

69: "All those who ascribe to man a part in conversion therefore overturn the whole teaching of Scripture on conversion"

70: "It is indeed God's work alone if a person is converted; but it is only man's work if he remains unconverted."

70: "Even passages such as: 'choose whom you will serve' [Joshua 24:15]…do not contain any synergism. They are to be taken in the same way as when the Savior says: 'Lazarus, come forth.'"

      Reading Walther's characterization of God's action against a stony heart can drive a Christian to plead with Him in prayer for those in his family who are unconverted. — 

      Now I present my English translation of the full complete essay, with missing portions restored , all emphasized wording retained, and with hyperlinks for reference and navigation:

Download text file with no highlights here; German text file here.

In his "Postscript", editor Suelflow stated at the end of the 1981 translations book: 

"The entire series of essays which Walther delivered between 1873 and 1886 on the topic: The Doctrine of the Lutheran Church Alone Gives All Glory to God, an Irrefutable Proof That Its Doctrine Alone Is True, would constitute several volumes."

In the next Part AG5a…, we pick up where that 1981 CPH book ended, at the 1877 convention, beginning Walther's 3-year series of essays on the Doctrine of the Election of Grace, or Predestination.

AG4a: 1876: Means of Grace, their Foundation, Validity

      This continues from Part AG3c (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". — The bulk of this essay deals with the Doctrine of the Means of Grace, then follows that with the Doctrine of Conversion. On the Means of Grace, Walther covers four points:

1. Foundation (pp. 25-29)
2. Validity (pp. 29-42)
3. Power (pp. 42-56)
4. Immutability (pp. 56-63)

Conversion is covered on pp. 63-71. — Teaching on the Means of Grace is especially needed today with so many of the so-called "Evangelicals" in America who essentially teach Reformed doctrine. And Walther provides the perfect defense for Lutheran teaching. Who does not need a refresher on this doctrine? — This segment will focus on pp. 18-29: 

Notable Quotes: (on Means of Grace)

Introduction: [pp. 18-25]

20: "as long as a man still seeks his own honor, he does not yet have true religion" [Worldly psychotherapy counsels "self-love", as it did for me in my past. Therapist hated Christian counsel.]

20: "If I now know that the interpretation [of Scripture] honors God alone, then I have a summary proof that it is right"

21: "Methodists…place the glory and excellence of their religion above all in the fact that they are the holiest and most pious people there are in the world"

21-22: "Even if it [Reformed Church] uses the words "means of grace" [See this blog post on Dr. Albert Mohler, a Southern Baptist.], it understands something quite different from what God's Word and our church understand by it"

22: Reformed teach "a means to initiate the effects of the Holy Spirit in a person, whereas a means of grace is that which brings me the grace of God."

22: "If…we look for it [grace] somewhere else…by kneeling down in a corner and sighing… then we are going the way of enthusiasts …it is the voice of the devil or of his own flesh."

22: The Word as Means: "'You are now clean because of the Word that I have spoken to you.' John 15:3"

23: "there are also three witnesses of grace on earth, namely the Spirit (the Word of God), the water (Baptism) and the blood (Holy Communion)" [Cp. to 1 John 5:7]

23: "God gives no one his Spirit or grace without, through, and with the preceding outward Word"

23: Enthusiasts: "always teach: if you want grace, you must pray until you feel that it is within you"

24: Enthusiasts "makes for himself a means of grace that God has not made

25: "If the good God spoke to us from heaven, we would believe it; but if he speaks to us through the Bible, we do not believe it, because we do not seriously and truly regard it as the Word of God."

25: "our church does not speak merely of signs of grace, but of means of grace."

Foundation: [pp. 25-29]

25: Smalcald Art.: "The Word of God shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel" [Against Prof. Joel Biermann. and his "Scripture and Tradition".]

25-26: "the Papists introduce five other sacraments…: Confirmation, Penance, Matrimony, Ordination of Priests, and Extreme Unction"

26: "Methodists declare prayer to be such a means. But how can there be grace in something we do? Prayer is rather an effect, a fruit of the means of grace"

26: Methodists: "…also make their penitential bench, even their prayer meetings and camp meetings, into means of grace."

28: "Many false Lutherans also teach today that ordination is a sacramental act, especially the orthodox Romanist enthusiast [A. F. C.] Vilmar" [See here for more.]

28: "Among all the Reformed with their sects, the Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, the spirit of Zwingli still prevails today"

29: Zwingli: "But the Spirit needs no vehicle". [I.e. no "means of grace".]

28: Zwingli: "The sacraments are given as a public testimony of the grace that each one has beforehand"

      Along with Walther's thorough treatment of the Means of Grace, one can also read Franz Pieper's treatment of the same doctrine in his book The Foundation of the Christian Faith here. — In the next Part AG4b, the Validity and Power of the Means of Grace.

Part 3: The Reformed Counter-Reformation; inner testimony of the Holy Spirit (TSSI)

      This continues from Part 2 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a short series publishing Franz Pieper's last convention essay in 1930 on the 3 Counter-Reformations. — In this segment, Pieper uses the most amount of ink to detail the clear departure of the Reformed Church from the Reformation, Luther's Reformation — From the 1930 Eastern District, pp. 28-38:

I. The Reformed Counter-Reformation.

Notable Quotations:

p. 28: "the so-called Reformed Church reformation very soon developed as a Counter-Reformation"

28: "the Reformed Church, in the doctrines in which it differs from the Lutheran Church, places blind human reason on the throne of rulers"

29: "But what the Reformed Church denies is the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. Luke 24:46-47… Scripture also teaches that Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. Acts 2:38… that Holy Communion is administered for the forgiveness of sins. Matt. 26:27-2"

30: "Zwingli submitted his own confession of faith (Fidei Ratio), in which he said that the Holy Spirit does not need a vehicle (vehiculum). Calvin repeated this wonderful teaching"

30: "…the terrible consequence if we humans set aside the means of grace ordained by God? We thereby also abandon the Christian doctrine of justification"

30-31: "The “inner” testimony of the Holy Spirit (testimonium internum Spiritus Sancti) is nothing apart from and alongside faith in the Gospel wrought by the Holy Spirit, 1 John 5:9-10"

31: "Now since the Reformed Church,… denies the means of grace and maintains that God communicates the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit without means, it thereby characterizes itself as a Counter-Reformation."

31: "… how Christian faith is possible in the Reformed sects that reject the external means of grace.…there is also a “happy inconsistency” at this point."

32: "Then, as a more recent Reformed theologian (Schneckenburger) points out, temptation and mortal distress also drove the Reformed to the Lutheran point of view, namely to base their faith on the external Word of the Gospel." [i.e. on a means of grace]

32: "Calvinist Reformed Church is also rationalistic in its doctrine of eternal election. It claims that anyone who teaches eternal election to faith and salvation must necessarily also teach eternal election to unbelief and damnation."

32-33: "The Reformed Church is also rationalistic in its doctrine of Holy Communion. What it teaches about the Lord's Supper contradicts the Holy Scriptures and is based merely on human ideas."

33: "The Reformed doctrine is excluded by the fact that the body of Christ, which is presented in the Lord's Supper to be eaten with the mouth, is not described as an image of the body, but as the true body by the addition 'which is given for you'."

34: "Christ's words with which he institutes Holy Communion are not unusual and obscure as far as the manner of speaking is concerned, but quite common and completely clear."

35: "the Reformed theologians contradict each other in their understanding of the words of the Lord's Supper."

36: "The Reformed Church also proved to be a counter-reformation by trying to oust the Lutheran Church from areas where the Lutheran Church had already gained a foothold.… one of the causes that halted the triumphant course of the Reformation and brought it to a partial standstill."

37: "the Reformed were always prepared to unite without agreement on doctrine" [= Unionism]

37: "the fact that they did not think highly of their cause was because they were not sure of their doctrine."

38: "all sins are forgiven through the Word of the Gospel, all sins are forgiven through baptism, and all sins are forgiven through Holy Communion"

38: "the conclusion that Reformed theologians allow themselves to draw, that therefore the Lord's Supper (which Christ warmly demanded to be instituted) is unnecessary, is blasphemous."

38: "they overlook the special consolation that Christ wants to give his Christians by instituting Holy Communion."

38: Luther: "I give it [Communion] to the one who takes it in particular, giving him Christ's body and blood, that he may have forgiveness of sins, acquired through his death and preached in the congregation. This is something more than the common (general) sermon"

    It may be noted that Prof. David Scaer (Pro Ecclesia 14 [2005] p. 149 ff.) and Rev. Dr. Martin Noland (see here) of the LC–MS explicitly deny Pieper's teaching above on the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit (p. 30-31), saying that the orthodox Lutheran teachers received such teaching from the Calvinists.  But Scaer and Noland should study the Book of Concord here, and Pieper's reference to 1 John 5:9-10. Then they should study Pieper's essay, pages 29-31, to see that Pieper was here defending Lutheran doctrine against the Calvinists!

      In the concluding Part 4, "The Counter-Reformation within the Lutheran Church."

Dr. Albert Mohler… and the "means of grace"?

      If one reads conservative Christian commentary on the Internet, one will likely come across the writings and media presentations of Dr. Albert Mohler of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is an institution of the Southern Baptist Convention, essentially Reformed in its doctrine. Much of his commentary is encouraging for its defense against the anti-Christian policies being promoted or enacted within the United States.  He was especially inciteful for publicizing to a wider audience the events happening in West Lafayette, Indiana in 2022. The city council was debating an ordinance that could impact Christian counseling against sexual sin, in this case the so-called "transgenderism". One may read his Jan. 19, 2022 "The Briefing",  a local television report of a city council meeting, and a World Magazine report of the same city council proceedings. The "Christian counseling" method under indirect attack was, as reported by World, "popularized by the late Presbyterian pastor Jay Adams."  I personally was under this type of counseling for a period of time over 25 years ago, but later discovered its Calvinist basis, since Adams explicitly taught against Universal Justification. In his 1970 book Competent to Counsel, p. 70, Adams states (emphasis mine):

"As a reformed Christian, the writer believes that counselors must not tell any unsaved counselee that Christ died for him, for they cannot say that."

That is pure Calvinism which teaches "Particular Grace".  So I had to leave this counseling, for what good is it if they withhold the Gospel because they are not sure if I am saved or not. Admittedly there was some benefit for me, but not for my Christian faith. I had to return to Lutheranism for my assurance of salvation. The Gospel is, at its core, Universal, Objective Justification (UOJ), 2 Cor. 5:19, John 3:16.

      But this blog post addresses a very surprising phrase that Dr. Mohler used in his Jan. 19 "Briefing" (emphasis and highlight is mine):

"Biblical counseling emerged as an intentional effort to reject the integrationism that claimed you could combine humanistic secular psychology and biblical truth, and instead to counsel just on the basis and on the authority of biblical truth. And biblical counseling doesn't seek licensure, programs like the one at Southern Seminary and at Boyce College, do not lead to the seeking of certification by the state. We're not looking for state licensure, we're looking to equip Christian churches and Christian ministers to conduct truly Christian counseling on an authentically biblical basis. The biblical counseling movement is very well represented by this church in this Indiana town. It is operating on the basis of its own biblical convictions and it understands counseling rightly, not as seeking some form of therapeutic intervention by psychology or psychiatry.

That is not the church's proper role. The church's role is to apply what is preached in the pulpit, in the lives of individual Christians, helping them to make connections and application by the sufficiency and authority of the Word of God so that their lives are conformed to obedience to Christ. And thus, by the power of the Holy Spirit in the means of grace, our lives are conformed as Christians to Christ, to Christ's likeness.

"Means of Grace"?  From a Southern Baptist?  So I decided to research the official doctrines of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary which is an institution of the Southern Baptist Convention.  They are "Baptist" in their teaching.  On their web page it states:

"VII. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming."

No "means of grace" here, only Reformed doctrine that denies the God-given Sacraments as "means of grace" They are only "act(s) of obedience" and performed to "memorialize". — While we appreciate Dr. Mohler's news and analysis on many issues of our day, yet he cannot escape the fact that his doctrine, confessed as a Southern Baptist, calls into question, i.e. destroys, the very doctrines that he otherwise professes: Grace Alone, sola gratia. 

      Dr. Albert Mohler is a Baptist, not a Lutheran, in his confession, and so is being disingenuous by using the term "means of grace" when he actually means no such thing. The use of the term will certainly confuse some Lutherans into thinking there is no real difference, when it actually concerns, what Franz Pieper calls, "The Foundation of the Christian Church".

Fundament 10: Means of Grace 1: Deniers of the Means; Nafzgers' folly

[2019-10-27: added Appendix in red at bottom]
      This continues from Part 9 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a translation of Franz Pieper's essay on the foundation of the Christian faith ("Das Fundament des christlichen Glaubens"). —  Pieper now begins his very extensive coverage of the doctrine of the Means of Grace. Surprisingly this is by far the largest topic in Pieper's essay – I have split it up into 9 sections. A previous blog post covered this subject as Pieper wrote about it in his later Christian Dogmatics.
      There is much talk of the "means of grace" in today's LC-MS, but Franz Pieper's defense is on a firmer foundation.  How so?  Because he stated elsewhere (LuW January 1890):

“All praise of Christ, of grace, and of the means of grace, without the right doctrine of justification,… is nothing.”

Yes, there is a stark contrast between Pieper's defense and that of today's LC-MS. One glaring example is given after Pieper's essay below.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Text preparation and translation by BackToLuther using DeepL, Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, Yandex Translate. All bold text is Pieper's emphasis. All highlighting, red text, and most text in square brackets [ ] is mine.

Das Fundament des christlichen Glaubens.

The Foundation of the Christian Faith.

[by President Franz Pieper, Concordia Seminary; continued from Part 9 - page 129]

The Deniers of the Means of Grace and the Foundation of the Christian Faith.

The primary fundamental [or foundational] teachings also include the teaching of the means of grace. According to Scripture, God has taken everything into his own divine hand as far as the attainment of man’s salvation is concerned. It was only through the vicarious satisfaction of his Incarnate Son that He had the forgiveness of sins and thus the salvation acquired for mankind, which was under the curse of His Law. Then He—God himself—also determined the means by which he appropriated the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ and thus the salvation of mankind. 

They are external means in the human sense, namely the Word of the Gospel in its manifold forms of testimony, as a Word heard, read, moved in the heart, spoken as absolution, also expressed in signs. In every form, the Gospel is the divine proclamation of the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ. In the Gospel, in whatever form and when and where it comes to us, God calls out to each one of us: “Peace be with you”. The apostle Paul summarizes both the acquisition and the manifestation of the forgiveness of sins as follows: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” [2 Cor. 5:18] For a more detailed explanation, the apostle adds: “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” [2 Cor. 5:19], that is, of the reconciliation which took place 1900 years ago [now 2000 years] and was directed by Christ. Baptism is also part of God's Gospel, by which he distributes the forgiveness of sins to men, because according to Scripture it also happens “for the forgiveness of sins”, εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν (Acts 2:38). [page 130] When the converts on the first feast of Pentecost asked: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Peter replied: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”. [Acts 2:37-38] The Holy Communion also serves the same purpose, namely the distribution of the forgiveness of sins. Christ gives us in the Holy Communion, under bread and wine, the wonderful gift of his body and blood for the continuing remembrance of the fact that through his body given for us and through his blood shed for us we have a reconciled God, that is, the divine forgiveness of sins. “This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.” “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins”, εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν (Luke 22:19; Matt. 26:28)  It is according to Scripture when we confess in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (Apology M. 202, 3ff. [Trigl. 398-399, § 3-5; BoC]) that the oral word of the Gospel and the “external signs”, that is, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, have the same purpose and the same effect. “Idem est effectus Verbi et ritus.” “The outward signs [the sacraments] have been established for this purpose, that by them the hearts may be moved, namely by the Word and outward signs at the same time, that when we are baptized, when we receive the body of the Lord, they may believe that God truly will have mercy on us through Christ.” [after German text; BoC here, §4-5] In the Latin text, “Certe debent statuere corda, quum baptizamur, quum vescimur corpore Domini, . . . quod vere ignoscat nobis Deus propter Christum.” God promises us in many ways the forgiveness of sins, because He wants it that we sinners believe the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ. From the forgiveness of sins flow all other spiritual gifts and goods. Hence the multiple forms of his means of grace. 

To these means ordered by God we men are bound in this life. After we have come to the knowledge of sins through the law, let us ask: “Where do I find God’s own explanation and promise to forgive me my sin for Christ's sake”. The answer is: In the external means ordered by him for the forgiveness of sins, in the Word of the Gospel and in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. And let us further ask: “How do I come to believe in the offered forgiveness of sins, and how is my faith, when it is shaken, awakened again and again, strengthened and preserved?” This is the answer: God does this by the same external means by which he offers us the forgiveness of sins and promises it to us. Dogmatists express this in such a way that the means of grace have not only a vis exhibitiva or dativa [effective or giving power], but also a vis effectiva or operativa [working power]. It's like this: Where the divine presentation of forgiveness [page 131] 

of sins, there is also always the Holy Spirit with his effectiveness for the generation and preservation of faith in the offered forgiveness of sins. According to Scripture, it is, so to speak, the “real business” of the Holy Spirit until the Last Day to work faith in men. This is what Christ teaches us when he says in the promise of the mission of the Holy Spirit: “He shall glorify me.” (John 16:14)  Glorifying Christ in the hearts of men (δοξάσειν) [John 13:32 – doxasei, glorify], is but nothing else than working in the hearts the faith that they recognize Christ as the only mediator between God and man, who gave Himself a ransom for all (ἀντίλυτρον) [1 Tim. 2:6 – ransom], that is, by whose vicarious satisfaction they have the forgiveness of their sins. But this is also the reason why all those who deny the means by which God distributes to men the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ, thereby also abandon the foundation of the Christian faith.

= = = = = = = = = =  continued in Part 11  = = = = = = = = = =

Is the reading of Holy Scripture a “Means of Grace”… or not?

Prof. Peter Nafzger,
Concordia Seminary

      LC-MS teachers today do not promote the reading of the Word of God as a “means of grace”. Although Prof. Peter Nafzger of Concordia Seminary admits  (Towards a Cruciform Theology of Scripture, p. 111) that: “…Luther would also refer to Scripture as a ‘means-of-grace-word.’”, he immediately follows this with the comment: “But this was not his normal way of speaking. He usually emphasized the need for the oral proclamation [over reading?] of the Word, as well as Paul’s comment that faith comes through ‘hearing’".  What Peter Nafzger is clearly asserting with his "cruciform" theology is to eliminate the reading of the written Holy Scriptures as a "means of grace".  An analogy to this is when the Roman Catholic Church denied one of the elements of Holy Communion, a means of grace, to its members in Luther's day.  A refreshing antidote to this is Prof. Steven P. Mueller's book Called to Believe, Teach & Confess, where he states (p. 46): “… one should rather journey more confidently into the Scriptures as a means of grace, where the power of God for salvation rests for all who believe.”  Mueller does not hint at excluding the reading of Scripture in this statement. — But the best defenders of Holy Scripture in all its forms were Martin Luther, the Lutheran Church, and Old Missouri… as Pieper writes.  And of course Holy Scripture itself counsels us to “Give attendance to reading…” 1 Tim. 4:13.

The Nafzgers’ dangerous path

Dr. Samuel H. Nafzger
Confessing the Gospel books

      The clear assertion by Prof. Peter Nafzger, his "cruciform" theology, to demote the reading of Holy Scripture as a Means of Grace, is against God's own Word.  It is against Martin Luther, as even he admits.  It denies one of God's means of grace. And Franz Pieper gives the clearest warning that to deny any of the Means of Grace is essentially an abandonment of the foundation of the Christian faith.  Prof. Peter, by his direct assertions, and his father, Dr. Samuel H. Nafzger, by his recommendation of his son Peter's book (in Confessing the Gospel, p. 741), are on a very dangerous path indeed. Dr. Samuel Nafzger's textbook, far from "updating" Pieper, is destroying Pieper's work of pure Lutheran teaching. — In the next Part 11…

2019-10-27: Appendix- on reading the Scriptures:
Jesus condemned the unbelief of the Pharisees with the words: “Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner” (Matt. 21:42). He denounced the Sadducees: “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. … But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God?” (Matt. 22:29, 31). Again Jesus challenged the Jews: “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39)
The Formula of Concord also speaks on the reading of Scripture (Solid Declaration, 45) [2025-10-28 updated link]:

“We are certainly in duty bound …with simple faith and due obedience to receive the words as they read, in their proper and plain sense.” 

Pieper's disgust: Reformed against Means of Grace (Revival & silent meetings - Negros & Quakers)

      Continuing my project of presenting the full text of Franz Pieper's original German edition of his Christliche Dogmatik.... (Vol. 1a & 1b text is polished; working on Vol. 3a text)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
      While polishing the text of Volume 3a, I ran across Pieper's comment regarding "revival meetings" of blacks (Negros) and whites and how they were ridiculed...  Pieper expressed his "hard saying", a "concession", his disgust, and a strong defense against the Reformed error in our modern world and its own idea of "God" and how to reach Him... and I decided to present my translation of this entire section because it certainly speaks to our modern world... here and now:  This is an extract from pages 188-190 here (English ed. pgs 159-160).

(Translation by BackToLuther. Underlining by the author. Highlighting is mine:)

If one wants to call our judgement a “hard saying” that the Reformed doctrine of the direct effect of the Spirit reduces personal Christianity to human subjectivism and amounts to self-deception, then we feel compelled to first make a concession.  We confess that from the natural-human point of view, all efforts to gain the grace of God, the Holy Spirit, and personal communion with God, except and beside the means of grace arranged by God, instill a certain respect, if these efforts give the impression of natural religious seriousness.  One can truly not fail to have a natural respect for monks who strive, as Luther did, in the ways of monasticism with complete earnestness for inner communion with God. One brings the same natural respect automatically to serious Quakers even in their extreme, the "silent meetings”.  Also we are not won over to only scoff at the revival meetings of the Negroes, when they seek to attract "the Holy Spirit" with wild cries and repulsive gestures.  The ridicule poured out by the unbelieving journalists over the revival meetings of Negroes and whites, fills us with disgust.

But all natural respect for these humanly serious efforts towards the Spirit and fellowship with God must not tarnish our Scriptural judgment, that each communion with God and each personal fellowship with God other than and in addition to the means of grace rests on self-deception.  From Scripture it is clear that the Holy Spirit is not involved in a direct action to faith. The Holy Spirit does not depend on the Fidei Ratio of Zwingli, where this gives the reminder of him that He (the Holy Spirit) needed no vehiculum.  The Holy Spirit stays with his vehiculum because He has declared through his tool, the Apostle Paul, that He will be received through the preaching of faith.  The Holy Spirit does not depend on [Reformed, Calvinists] Shedd, Hodge and Böhl who instruct Him that efficacious grace does not take place by the means of grace, but directly.  The Holy Spirit also is quite resistant to the "silent meetings" of the Quakers, because He wants to be effective not by silence, but by the preaching of the Gospel.  But He is immediately there when the Quakers, in contradiction with their own principle, diligently read the Bible, ie the outer word.  The Holy Spirit gives nothing over the often very noisy meetings of the revival preacher. He does not come through shouting and noise.  He is also nothing to drums and flags.  But he is immediately there even if in these meetings Christ, who was crucified for the payment of the sins of the world and faith in Him as the way to salvation, is proclaimed.  In short, the Holy Spirit uses His vehiculum. If one shoves aside this vehiculum, not the Holy Spirit is there, but a product of another spirit and one’s own spirit is evoked, which one mistakenly believes to be a product of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit Himself. Luther's judgment on the efforts of all those who accept an immediate action of the Holy Spirit is Scriptural: "You must, they say, have the Spirit; but the way that I can have the Spirit, they will not let me. Now how can I come across to the Spirit and believe if one does not preach the Word of God and give the sacraments to me? I must have the means; because faith comes from hearing, hearing but by the spoken Word, Rom. 10:17." (St. L. III: 1693-1694, paragr. # 83; not in American Edition )

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The enemies of the old (German) Missouri Synod will at times attempt to paint it as unfriendly to blacks (or Negros in Pieper's day).  But we see by this quote from Franz Pieper that he was rather sad to see so many deceived by the erroneous Reformed doctrine of the immediate working of the Holy Spirit... as we see so much of in today's "black churches".  And what was Pieper's "disgust" aimed at?... it was against the unbelieving journalists who ridiculed their "revival meetings", and against the effects of the false Reformed doctrine... not against the "Negros" themselves.  But Pieper hardly confines his comments to blacks as he also highlights the other extreme in the Quakers and their "silent meetings" intended to have the same effect as the "revival meetings".
      But what strikes me perhaps the most is that even the Quakers and revivalists can finally have the Holy Spirit when Christ crucified for the sins of the world is preached and read (as President Obama once mentioned)...  the Holy Spirit does not turn His back when the true Means of Grace, God's Word, is brought to bear in contradiction to the principles of these Reformed followers.