Churchman 5: Conventions– "so powerful", ”deep, lasting impression” on pastors, lay people

      This concludes from Part 4 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series presenting Ludwig Fuerbringer's 1936 essay "Walther as Churchman". — Fuerbringer rightly emphasizes Walther's prominence at the many Synod conventions that he attended.  And the focus in those days was the doctrinal essay, the "Lehrverhandlungen".  I have said it before and I'll say it again: whenever Walther was in attendance at any convention, the essay that was delivered has his authority, even if he was not the official presenter.  This was documented for the 1872 Synodical Conference essay. I suspect that CHI Director August Suelflow understood this, but he only had translated and published the essays that Walther explicitly delivered and would only call those essays Walther's "Essays For The Church". Fuerbringer, in another article, also emphasized the prominence of Franz Pieper in his convention essays… just like Walther.
      One of the points made in this segment is the leadership of Walther in the Missouri Synod.  More will be said about this below.  But now I present my translation of the final installment of this essay.

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Original German essay in CTM, vol. 7 (October, 1936), p. 721-730, full text here. Text preparation and translation by BackToLuther using DeepL, Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, Yandex Translate. All bold text is Fuerbringer's emphasis. All highlighting, red text, and most text in square brackets [ ] are mine.
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Walther as Churchman.

[by Ludwig Fuerbringer; conclusion from Part 4]

And finally, in describing Walther as a churchman, one must not overlook his quite outstanding activity and effectiveness at synod conventions. Walther was great as a theologian, great as a preacher, but especially great also as a leader and advisor at such conventions. 

"always preferred to hear
Walther"

I am referring to a word from our former Synod President H. C. Schwan, which others may have heard, and this has been indelibly imprinted on me. Schwan once said in a circle of pastors that he had always preferred to hear Walther when he had intervened freely, without notes and written records, without quotations from Luther and the other teachers, directly in the course of the proceedings and had clarified and decided some doctrinal point or a church question by his presentation. There he was always so convincing, so powerful, that nobody could say anything against it anymore. And just as Schwan said from many years of experience and observation, Walther stands before me in my own, admittedly very poor perceptions. As a young man I saw him several times at such meetings and heard him, in 1881 at the delegate synod in Fort Wayne and at the following pastoral conference, the so-called “Election of Grace Synod” [* see new CPH Walther’s Works book Predestination p. 151 ff.], then 1882 in St. Louis and 1883 in Altenburg, when Walther was the speaker on the topic extending over thirteen years: “That Only Through the Doctrine of the Lutheran Church All Honor is Given to God, an Irrefutable Proof that its Doctrine is the Only True One”. Walther concluded this topic at that time according to the “tenth, in its doctrine of the invocation and worship of God” and the “twelfth, by the doctrine of obedience to men in matters of faith and conscience”. 14)

On two other occasions I have seen Walther heavily involved in the proceedings led by two other theologians, in 1884, when Dr. F. Pieper spoke about the Lutheran Scripture Principle at the St. Louis Delegate Synod, and in 1886, when Dr. A.L. Gräbner spoke about the divinity of Scripture at the Detroit Synodal Conference. No one who attended such meetings could escape the power and force of Walther's remarks, which he took from the Holy Scriptures, the norma normans,  <page 730> and proved with the testimonies of the Confessions, the norma normata. He had his famous quotation notes with him — Walther used to copy important passages from Luther, from the symbols and from the dogmatists of the Lutheran Church and to store them nicely arranged in a larger cupboard with drawers (pigeon-holes) to have them easily at hand. But even though he had his quotes in his hand and read them from time to time, he spoke freely and made a deep, lasting impression on pastors and lay people.  And so it would be at his last public appearance as a churchman at the Synod of the Western District in October 1886 in St. Louis. There he brought the above-mentioned theme to a conclusion with the statement, “That even the ruler of the house has neither right nor power to rule over the faith and conscience of his subordinates”. And then he concluded with these words, which also formed the conclusion of this article, with a barely audible voice suffocated with tears:

with a barely audible voice
suffocated with tears

“Thus we are at the end of theses which have been discussed for thirteen years, in which it has been proved that our Lutheran Church in all these doctrines alone gives all glory to God and never attaches the glory due to the great God to the creature. What God deserves, she gives Him completely. God help us that we may not only rejoice to belong to such a church, but that we ourselves may also give Him all glory in our faith, confession, life, suffering and death! Our motto for life must be: soli deo gloria (Glory to God Alone)! This is what the angels sang immediately after the Saviour was born. That was the first and is also the main thing. God got his honor back through Jesus. We have borne nothing but shame, but we have received eternal happiness by giving God his glory again. To all who believe that with their hearts! they will then see all the holy angels and continue the song of honor, praise and glory to God from eternity to eternity. God help us, dear brothers, that we may one day also be among this multitude and then truly give all our glory to the dear God with all our heart! For here we cannot do it; our shameful flesh clings to us. But there, when God has taken the old flesh from us, our doctrine will not only be theory, but we will also practice it. O Lord Jesus, help us all! Amen.” 15) L. Fuerbringer.

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14) 24th Synod Report of the Western District, p. 21 [1882]; 25th Synod Report of the Western District, p. 16 [1883].

15) 27th Synodal Report of the Western District, p. 9-58 [1886].

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      We have testimony above from Pres. H. C. Schwan how Walther "intervened freely… directly in the course of the proceedings" of conventions.  As Fuerbringer reported Schwan's comments, he said that he equated Walther's spiritual comments to be as good as Luther's! Whenever and wherever Walther was present at conventions, the doctrinal essay and discussion commanded the main attraction.  This is further evidence that even at those conventions where he was not the official presenter of the essay, yet just his presence ensured that the pure Bible doctrine prevailed. It is my contention that all conventions where Walther was in attendance bear the stamp of his teaching.
      The above narrative described in two places Walther's commanding presence at conventions – "so convincing, so powerful" and "a deep, lasting impression".  This was indeed high praise for Walther as a theologian.  But does it mean that Walther was the only reason for the "success" of the Missouri Synod?  Some theologians, even Missouri Synod professors of Walther's time, said… yes.  And two Missouri Synod professors who said "yes" then left the Lutheran faith and became Roman Catholic.  A series of blogs is planned to present the history of these.  But for now, it was not Walther who built the Missouri Synod, it was God – it was the God of the Bible, through the Holy Scriptures to which Walther pointed… just as with Luther.  Amen.

Fundament 14: Means 5: Luther's counsel cont'd;

      This continues from Part 13 (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"). —  In this segment, we hear especially more defense of this doctrine of the Means of Grace from the Lutheran Martin Luther.  Is the Pope Catholic?  Was Luther Lutheran?  Silly questions…

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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 13 - page 251]

Luther also reminds us that it was ever and always God's way to communicate with people by external means and signs, thus making them partakers of His grace and certain of it. Thus, in the time of the Old Testament, the people of Israel saw the light of God's grace in the temple of Jerusalem. “Therefore the holy prophets have written much about the tabernacle, the dwelling place and the tabernacle where God wanted to be present” In the New Testament, God's grace shines on us wherever we have the Word of the Gospel and the sacraments, no matter in which country and in which place we are. 

In order to obtain complete satisfaction from all our sins, we do not need to wander to Rome or to other papist “places of grace”, nor to move to Palestine and Jerusalem, but our place of grace in the New Testament is wherever God gives His Gospel and His sacraments. There we shall keep ourselves, and there we shall be certain in the faith of the grace of God, and shall satisfy our conscience. On the words Exodus 15:17: “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in” remarks Luther: (St. L. III,924 f. [not in Am. Ed.?]) 

“Likewise he has also built for us Christians a temple where He will dwell, namely the oral Word, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, which are bodily things. But our false prophets, divisive spirits, and enthusiasts despise it and throw it away as if it were no good, saying, ‘Yes, I will sit and wait for a flying spirit and revelation to come from heaven.’ But beware of it! We also know that water, bread and wine do not save us; but how do you like that, that in the Lord's Supper bread and wine [page 252] or pure water in baptism are not bad, but God saith that He will be in baptism, that it shall cleanse us from sin, and wash us? And in the Lord's Supper under bread and wine is given the body and blood of the Lord of Christ. Will you then despise God and His sign here and look upon the water in baptism and keep it equal to the water that flows in the Elbe, or that you may cook with? Or do you want the Word of the Gospel equal to the words or speeches as peasants speak in a Kretschmar or tavern? For God said, When the Word is preached by Christ, then I am in your mouth, and I go with the Word through your ears into your heart. Wherefore we have a certain sign, and know that when the Gospel is preached, God is present, and He will be found there; there I have a bodily sign, and I may know and find God. So He is also at baptism and the Supper; for he hath joined himself to be there. But if I go to St. Jacob's or to the Grimmetal, go into a monastery and look for God elsewhere, I will miss Him. And if now the divisive spirits preached: Just as monastic life, invocation of the saints, the mass and pilgrimages are nothing, so Baptism and the Lord's Supper are nothing either: that will yet not work for a long time. For there is a great difference when God ordains and installs something, or when man creates something. Yes, you shall believe God's ordinances and foundations, worship them and hold them in great honour. So he also ordered Moses: Bring them into the land, that is, arrange, and make a certain place, that whosoever cannot worship thee there personally may return his body here, and turn his face to it, and pray. So I have God also in a certain place, here in the Word and sacraments, that though one be in Rome, or wherever else he may be, if he turn his face only to the Word and sacraments, and worship them, there he shall find our Lord God; and if he would also be found in a straw, there he should be sought and honored.”

Luther speaks particularly powerfully of the necessity of the means of grace as the foundation of faith in a sermon on John 17:1, (St. L. VIII, 749. [not in old series Am. Ed.]) in which he cites himself as an example. It is, as has been repeatedly mentioned, part of the nature of modern “experience theology”, denying the inspiration of Scripture, to make the “personal Christ” the foundation of faith. In contrast, Luther explains from his experience that salvation certainty and truth certainty disappeared from him as often as he thought about truth and salvation without the outer Word of Scripture. In this case "there was no [page 253] Christ at home”. He says in the sermon mentioned: 

“I do not know how strong others are in the Spirit; but I cannot become so holy if I were learned and full of the Spirit as some would appear to be. It still happens to me at all times when I am without the Word, when I do not think of it or deal with it, there is no Christ at home, yes, there is no desire or spirit; but as soon as I take a psalm or passage of the Scriptures before me, it shines and burns in my heart that I may gain courage and meaning for others.” 

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      Luther admits that he had no "Spirit", as the "so holy" enthusiasts claimed, without utilizing God's Means of Grace. — The next installment will introduce a surprising defender of the Means of Grace in Germany, from more modern times… a converted Jew! That comes in the next Part 15…

Holiday book purchases - Luther's Gospel Sermons, John Frederick history

      As mentioned in my last blog post, I want to call attention to a magnificent new CPH book.  I have been asked on occasion what books might be purchased for the edification of the Lutheran faith, and have so provided some suggestions – here (Walther, theologian), here (Baseley books), here (Logia-Pieper), here (Walther, sermons), etc.  This holiday season there is a clear choice for a must-have purchase:

New Luther sermon book from CPH/McCain (2018)
      In researching the long quote from Luther's sermon by Pieper in the last blog, I ran across Paul McCain's work of getting a sizable portion of Luther's sermons in a popular (i.e., not scholar's) book format for Concordia Publishing. It is his A Year in the Gospels with Martin Luther, Volumes 1 and 2 and it was released last year (2018) without my noticing it… because it was not even mentioned in their Christmas 2018 catalog.  (Why no promotion of it then?) This 2-volume book saves the general reader from too many scholarly notes in the Luther's Works series that sometimes get in the way of understanding Luther and which sometimes overturn him.  At first I thought that Volume 2 was going to be published separately at a later time, but have discovered that they are selling both volumes for only $40.00 (not each)… a very economical price!  There probably will never be any discount on that price.  I highly recommend this 2-volume book as perhaps the best publication of Luther's sermons in English, except perhaps Prof. Eugene Klug's Sermons of Martin Luther: The House Postils. (Now if CPH would also offer Walther's sermon's in a low cost format…) More in the "Read more" section below…

Fundament 13: Means 4: German theologian vs. Luther’s teaching

      This continues from Part 12 (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 brings the full force of Martin Luther to bear on this subject, on the doctrine of the Means of God's Grace.

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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 12 - page 249]

Among the teachers whom Christ gave to his Church after the time of the infallible Apostles of his Church, no one has so clearly recognized from his own experience the Christian doctrine of the means of grace in its primary fundamental meaning and taught it so powerfully in his writings as Luther.  

“an historical monster”

Adolf Harnack, of course, as we have already heard on page 132, claims that Luther himself knew best that the Christian did not live by the means of grace. Such an assertion should not be possible for a historian. It's an historical monster. In nearly all his sermons, lectures and writings, Luther explains: The Christian lives, as only from the sola gratia, as only from the means of grace. Whoever with the Reformed enthusiasts lets go the external means of grace ordered by God, namely the external Word of the Gospel, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as the foundation of his faith, thereby with the Papists also lets go the “by grace alone” as the foundation of his faith. He does not understand by saving grace the gracious disposition of God (gratuitus Dei favor), which is present through Christ's vicarious satisfaction for all people and is revealed and offered by the means of grace to the saving faith as the only fixed foundation, but he understands “grace” as with the Papists, a so-called “infused grace” (gratia infusa). He falls back into the Papist works doctrine and thus also into all its evil consequences: into the monstrum incertitudinis gratiae, and he must perish in doubt and despair, unless he, by God's grace, in challenge and need of death, places himself on the only fixed foundation of faith, the objective means of grace. Through Luther, the Reformer of the Church, God has again pointed the whole Church, indeed the whole world, to the fundamental importance of the means of grace ordained by Him. We put a few pronunciations of Luther here. 

These are words that are generally known in our circles. But it is necessary and useful that also [page 250] we remember them again and again, because even in practice we forget only too easily that God wants to act in spiritual matters only through the means ordered by Him.

Luther distinguishes between the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of grace in terms of God's revelation and effect. In the kingdom of nature God works everywhere and distributes his goods and gifts for earthly life. He does that even where his Gospel is not. But in the kingdom of grace, in which he distributes the forgiveness of sins acquired by Christ and thereby satisfies and governs the heart and conscience, God has bound his revelation and efficacy to his Word. This subheading includes Luther's words in his church postil on Luke 2:49:

“What does he mean: ‘I must be about my Father's business’? Do not all creatures belong to the Father? All is His; but the creatures He hath given us for our use, that we should reign with them in this earthly life, as we know how. But there is one thing he has reserved for Himself, which is holy and God's own, and which we must especially receive from Him. That is his Holy Word, by which He rules the hearts and consciences, and sanctifies and saves them. Therefore, the temple is also called His holy place or His holy dwelling, that he showed Himself present in it by his Word and let it be heard. So Christ is in that which is His Father’s when He speaks with us through His Word and by means of it brings us to the Father. For that reason He rebukes His parents for running around and seeking Him in earthly and human things and affairs, among acquaintances and friends, and not thinking that He must be in that which is His Father's. By doing this, He wants to point out that His government and the whole Christian life exists only in the Word and in faith, not in other external things (such as the external, apparent holiness of Judaism), nor in temporal and worldly life or government. ... 

That is now what I have said, that God does not want to tolerate that we should rely on something else or cling with our hearts to something that is not Christ in His Word, however holy and full of spirit it may be. Faith has no other ground on which it can stand. ... We must seek Christ in that which is the Father's, which is that we simply and alone cling to the Word of the Gospel which shows us Christ aright and makes Him known to us. And learn only in this and all spiritual trials, if you want to comfort others or yourself, so with Christ say: What is it that you run so here and there, that you torture yourself with frightened and sorrowful thoughts, as if God did not want grace for you any more, and as if no Christ were to be found, and you will not be satisfied unless you find him by yourself and feel holy and without sin? [page 251] Nothing will come of it; it is vain lost effort and work. Do you not know that Christ will not be present or let Himself be found except in that which is His Father’s and not in what you or all other people are or have? 

It is not the fault of Christ and his grace; He is not and never will be lost, and may always be found; But the fault is in you when you do not seek Him correctly where He is to be sought, because you judge by your feeling and think to seize Him with your thoughts. You must come not where your or anyone’s business and government are, but where God’s is, namely, in His Word; there you will meet Him, hear Him, and see that there is neither anger nor disgrace, as you fear and hesitate, but pure grace and heartfelt love toward you. …  But [the heart] first becomes heavy before it comes to this point and grasps these things. It must first rush off and experience what it means that everything is lost and that Christ is sought in vain. Finally, there is no help left but, apart from yourself and all human consolation, to give yourself to the Word alone.”  (Gospel for the First Sunday after Epiphany. St. L. XI, 452 ff. [Am. Ed.? McCain’s new edition, p. 293 ff.; Lenker v. 11, p. 17 here])

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      Pieper's long quote from a sermon of Martin Luther lead me to discover a more recent English translation of it in a relatively new book by CPH.  I want to highlight that book in a separate blog post here.  —  Then, in the next Part 14…

Pfotenhauer funeral sermon for Pieper: "evil times"; "burning hearts" -Part 2 of 2

      This concludes from Part 1, a new English translation of the 1931 funeral sermon for Franz Pieper by President Friedrich Pfotenhauer.  —  It was only after I had translated this sermon that I discovered that Matthew C. Harrison had already translated it in 1993 and had it printed in CHIQ.  And so I read with interest Harrison's prefacing remarks to his translation where he spoke of one of his own mentors, Prof. Otto Stahlke (CTS-FW) :

He had stood guard by Pieper’s earthly remains until the old doctor was laid to rest on June 6, 1931. Pieper had been Otto’s favorite seminary professor. This sermon [of Pfotenhauer] is prescient. ‘… the demise of a great man of God is usually a harbinger of evil times to come in the Church.’

Yes, President Harrison, even you seem to admit, along with previous president Pfotenhauer, that "evil times" have come to the Church.  But could it be that this is in part your doing, because even you have left "the House of My Fathers".  The Wikipedia page on you tells the whole world that you were in league with "St. Peter Catholic Church" in a social program.  But I thought the Lutheran Church confessed that salvation was by faith alone, not by the Roman Catholic "faith and works"?  Which is it?  How can your members be "Joy:Fully Lutheran" when they can't be sure of this doctrine… because of your actions?

Translated by BackToLuther using DeepL, Google, Microsoft, Yandex. German text available here.

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Funeral Sermon on John 17:10,

held at the funeral of F. Pieper on June 6, 1931.

2.

God had placed Dr. Pieper in a large room and a great field to instruct. For fifty-three years he worked as a theological professor at our local seminary and since Dr. Walther's death in 1887 he has also been the president of this great school. The number of students sitting at his feet grew steadily, so that every year ever larger classes were sent from the great field of work of our Synod. From synods and conferences and at important doctrinal conversations, he was our recognized and sure guide. Through our journals and books he exerted great influence on our pastors and churches as well as on circles outside our synod. Through his work as a theologian, our Synod was comforted over the departure of Dr. Walther, in whose work he entered and which he faithfully continued. If one wants to briefly characterize Dr. Pieper's theological activity, one cannot do this better than by saying: He spread the knowledge of Jesus through word and writings and thus glorified his Saviour.

Jesus’ face shines alone in Holy Scriptures. The Bible is nothing other than the revelation of the kindness and gentleness of God, our Saviour. If a theologian takes something away from this or adds something to it, then he darkens the figure of Jesus, yes, he may cover it completely. A proper theologian must therefore be a Christian theologian. This Dr. Pieper was to a great extent. He described Christ's person and Christ's ministry as the Holy Spirit revealed to us in his words. v. 5 [John 17:5] And in relation to the work of Christ, he equally emphasized both: the gratia universalis and the sola gratia, that is, that Jesus is in the same way the Saviour of every man, <column 2> and that he saves without any merit, worthiness or contribution on our part, but only by grace. This teaching was at the center of his theology. He never got tired of talking about them. He defended this teaching with great courage. He did not allow himself to drift off course by interjections of human reason. Even in the slightest point, he did not give up anything for reasons of opportunity. [see L.F. testimony on this] He did not want to let any shadow fall on the clear form of his Saviour, but to glorify Him through word and writing and to reveal Him in His true form.

And precisely because his theology was solely focused on Christ, the great Saviour from all trouble and the Saviour of all people, that is why we listened so gladly to him and grew through him in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our hearts often burned in us when we followed his oral explanations or read his writings at home.

Dr. Pieper has now completed his race. [Hebr. 12:1] His activities have come to an end. If we survey these, we must marvel at their glory and greatness. His activity was glorious, for in it we see a fulfillment of the high priestly words of our Saviour: “Father, I am glorified in them.” [John 17:10] They were great, and what greater things can a man do than glorify his fellow man Jesus, to show them Jesus as a sure Saviour from all misery?

Therefore today not only the wife and the children of the departed complain of a great loss, but also the whole church. And oh! in our complaints there are serious worries about the future of our Synod. “The righteous is taken away from the evil to come”, Isa 57:1. Certainly our Father had reached the fullness of a human life. His age and the added illness told us that his end was naturally not far away. But this does not change the fact that the death of great men of God is a harbinger of evil times in the Church.

So, then, in this era in the history of our Synod, let us be hesitant and tremble with regard to the future of ourselves, our sins and our inability , and let all seek refuge alone with our faithful Saviour, and let us ask him here at this coffin that He may remain with us.  And especially for our faculty at our Concordia Seminary here at St. Louis, where Dr. Pieper has been for half a century the decoration and adornment, help them that they do not suffer as has happened to so many theological faculties, which through their doctrines have obscured the glory of our Saviour, but that through them, as in the past, so in the future, the knowledge of our Saviour may be spread through word and writing, and that our theological youth may be properly prepared for their profession for the temporal and eternal salvation of many immortal souls and for the glory of our highly praised Saviour.

God be gracious and merciful to us and give us His divine blessing!

Let His face shine upon us, that we may know His ways from the earth!

God bless us, our God! God bless us and give us His peace! Amen.

F. Pfotenhauer.

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      Pfotenhauer's description of "burning hearts" from Pieper's oral presentations reminded me of the following report by Pastor Armand J. Boehme's Foreword to the book C.F.W. Walther: The American Luther, p. x (emphasis mine):

     When Dr. Theodore F. Nickel (*) attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri (1923-1927), he was taught by a number of faculty members… noting especially the work of Dr. Franz Pieper. Dr. Pieper was Walther’s hand-picked successor in serving as Professor and Seminary President. Dr. Walther was known as “Mr. Law and Gospel”; Dr. Pieper was known as “Mr. Law and Gospel II.”

      How sad it is that the LC-MS would not! (Matt. 23:37)  After only a few years after this sermon, the Missouri Synod rejected Pfotenhauer as their president, instead electing John Behnken.  Also Ludwig Fuerbringer was elected to succeed Pieper as president of Concordia Seminary, instead of stronger men such as Theodore Engelder or Paul E. Kretzmann or J. T. Mueller,.  The rest is history. Pfotenhauer’s prophecy of “evil times” prevailed in the 20th Century… and continues to this day.