WELS AnswerMan Leaves Them Laughing Again

Q: Having been in fellowship with LCMS for decades prior to splitting in early 1960, does WELS accept the 3 volume book of Francis Pieper "Christian Dogmatics" along with the Book of Concord as being consistent with their confessional teachings?

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A: No dogmatics texts including our own are placed on the level of the confessions. Neither are the writings of Luther. The confessions are the collective statements of the church. Pieper's dogmatics set is his private writing. The LCMS has never adopted it, as they did the Brief Statement.

We use Pieper's dogmatics and it is doctrinally sound, but there are some very poorly-worded statements in the section on church and ministry which are very difficult to understand in an acceptable sense. Pieper himself contradicts these statements in other writings of his.

End of AnswerMan Quotation

Sigh. Whenever I need something good to write about, WELS AnswerMan delivers a soft pitch across the plate.

The Wisconsin Synod is very much like the Latter-day Saints. People think the Mormon Bible is the Book of Mormon, but Mormons ignore that for Doctrine and Covenants and other strange writings.

A Wisconsin Synod pastor will claim they have a quia subscription to the Book of Concord, but that is another deception. Their own publications set the standards for many different Wisconsin Synod declarations, all in error. There is an essay claiming WELS is not bound by the Book of Concord, either in Our Great Heritage or the Wauwatosa set. Note that both sets are pure self-glorification. They cannot get Hoenecke published slow enough, but they have six thick volumes of their worst effluent bound and sold as confessional treasures. I owned both sets earlier, but I used them for kindling. They were so dry.

Their real position is that WELS alone determines the meaning of Scripture, apart from any other authority, statement, or book. Their fanaticism for the NIV, UOJ, the Church Growth Movement, and marketing the Gospel reveals their devotion to Lutheran orthodoxy.

No, Pieper's Dogmatics is not the last word in Lutheran orthodoxy. (Could AnswerMan observe the rules of journalism, capitalize the book title and use italics?) I would not call the set an official document of Missouri, unlike OGH and Wauwatosa for WELS, but it is hardly "private." CPH published Pieper, translated it, and still makes money from it. I had a German set that was built to last for centuries, like the Walther sermon books in German.

Pieper is way cool for Bronze Age Missourians and some ELS people today. I fear WELS has not forgiven Francis for leaving the synod and joining Missouri. His brother August stayed in the sect and apparently disagreed with Francis on church and ministry issues. I find these repristination people mega-boring, so I am not about to unravel the history of all this.

I do not mean to pick on these sincere men. I do find it disgusting that so many leaders today are willing to trace their doctrine all the way back - one generation earlier and stop there, ignoring Luther, Chemnitz, and the giants of the Lutheran Reformation. That is precisely why the so-called conservative Lutheran bodies are following ELCA around with their tongues hanging out.

Missouri, the ELS, WELS, and the mini-micros have their machine gunners ready for anyone who questions forgiveness without faith (Universal Objective Justification). They cannot defend their false doctrine. They are like Keystone Kops running around whenever they try. But they are still ready at the trigger, to fire away and make people fear their wrath. That is an tragic inheritance from Walther/Pieper worship.