Symptoms of Lutheran Pietism

Note the liberal, unionistic links at the WELS Prayer Institute.

Symptoms of Lutheran Pietism

One must generalize about Pietism, since its influence has been so extensive and damaging. But generalizing is an effort deeply resented by Lutheran Pietists, because it implies extensive reading, study, and years of experience. If we recognize the undercurrent of Enthusiasm among Lutherans, especially in the conservative synods, we can see why rejecting the efficacy of the Word and welcoming the doctrines and methods of Pietism go claw in claw.

Lay Led Cell Groups

The conventicle, as it was called then, was the chief method for promoting Pietism. Claiming that the visible church was dead or not active enough, Pietists gathered to study and pray. The ideal was and continues to be a higher or deeper spiritual life with an abundance of good works. Such gatherings can be very intense, intimate, and binding. A reader has pointed out that a small group is used quite effectively for Marxist cell groups and Navy SEAL teams. Since the Means of Grace are set aside in cell groups, prayer becomes the only means of grace.[43] The Reformed emphasize prayer groups and prayer as a means of grace, so Reformed material is extremely attractive to Lutheran Pietists.[44] In addition, since these groups tend to be open to outsiders, false teachers gladly participate. One Adventist minister attended a Missouri Synod Bible study group and dominated all the meetings until I complained!

When I warned a Missouri Synod congregation against all lay led cell groups, since they are typically anti-Means of Grace, one woman was very angry. She attended a Lutheran study group and did not see what was wrong with it. Later, she attended the lay-led group and brought up Baptism as a sacrament. The leader of the Lutheran cell group became very hostile and did not want to discuss the topic. The cell group leader did not believe in Baptism. Much later the woman admitted her anger about my comments and what had happened subsequently. She said, “Now I know what you meant.” She was impressed by the hostility expressed by a Lutheran leader about something so basic to all Lutherans.

J-767

"We probably think first of such groups coming into being in the late 1600s in connection with Pietism. Spener promoted them as a vehicle by which pious laypeople could be a leaven for good in reforming the 'dead orthodoxy' of a congregation and its pastor."[45]
Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 126.

J-768

"The point being made here is that the reason for having home Bible study in small groups seems to have shifted from the Pietists' or parachurch groups goal of creating cells of people who will reform the church to having small groups as an integral part of a congregation's work."
Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 127.

Whenever cell groups meet, Pentecostals or charismatics see these groups as fertile ground for promoting tongue-speaking. If one can fervently pray for God’s grace and forgiveness, then how much better would it be to speak in tongues? Every glossolalia salesman acts as if he swallowed the Holy Ghost feathers and all, so innocent people are easily swindled by the talk of “love” and “Jesus” and “do not let them quench the Holy Spirit.” Many WELS and LCMS pastors enamored of the Church Growth Movement have abandoned Lutheran doctrine to be non-denominational, Reformed, or charismatic.

Whether the cell group is Pentecostal or not, spiritual pride soon sets in. The group is superior to the rest of the congregation, more loving, more generous, and more willing to witness. One advocate for koinonia groups in the LCA said, “ Who was in church every Sunday? The koinonia groups. Who showed up for work day? The koinonia groups. Who gave most of the offering? The koinonia groups. Before we had the koinonia groups, nothing was going on.”

J-769

"The church is no longer the community of those who have been called by the Word and the Sacraments, but the association of the reborn, of those who 'earnestly desire to be Christians'...The church in the true sense consists of the small circles of pietists, the 'conventicles,' where everyone knows everyone else and where experiences are freely exchanged. The man who is really pious can and must stand on his own feet. Only little weight is attached to the ministry of the Word, to worship services, the Sacraments, to confession and absolution, and to the observance of Christian customs; a thoroughly regenerated person does not need these crutches at all. Pietism stressed the personal element over against the institutional; voluntariness versus compulsion; the present versus tradition, and the rights of the laity over against the pastors.”
Martin Schmidt, "Pietism," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1899.

Cell groups are also extremely divisive. They not only act superior, but also set themselves up against the congregation and pastor. Many Baptists will admit sheepishly that they have Sunday School leaders who have never set foot in church for decades and never plan to do so. Obviously, for them, the lay-led group is the real church. These words are often spoken by Lutheran Pietists: my church is the home Bible study group. The group leader often conducts himself as an opponent of the called pastor. At the very least, the Means of Grace are scorned or diminished in favor of experience, feelings, and the intimacy of the group.

Doctrinal Indifference

Spener’s program made personal experience the norm of the Christian. What someone thought, felt, or experienced was more significant than what the Bible revealed or the Confessions taught. Lack of trust in the efficacy of the Gospel was accompanied by an anxious need “to witness, to save all those lost souls.” In addition, Lutheran orthodoxy is seen as an enemy of evangelism, as cold and intellectual.

J-770

"But a cold heart can beat close to a correct mind. There are too many churches with impeccable credentials for orthodox theology whose outreach is almost nil. They are 'sound,' but they are sound asleep." Leighton Ford (Billy Graham’s in-law), The Christian Persuader. Valleskey asks: "true to a certain degree of us?"
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, Pastoral Theology 358A, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, p. 24.[46]

Lutheran Pietists excuse their love of Reformed doctrine by saying, “Look at all the witnessing I am doing.” Their position is appealing, because it does not require much thought. Any adult could carry a handful of their books easily. Their works are physically and doctrinally light but long on emotions, appealing to the Me Generation. Their leaders learn to pipe their eyes, as one person described it so eloquently. At the right moment, they burst into tears. One pastor would wipe a tear from his eye, hold it up, and look at it during the sermon. The best sermons at that church were succinctly described in this way: “The treasurer wept.”

As Professor Reu stated so well, doctrinal indifference and unionism are closely allied. One requires or causes the other. Doctrinal indifference is so important to Pietists that they get angry when someone insists on doctrinal standards. The Pietistic rebuke is either, “You are loveless and divisive,” or “We all believe in the same Lord. Why can’t we get along?” However, this indifference is also a smokescreen. The Pietists are not ecumenical about anti-Pietists. They will travel over heaven and earth to silence one dissenter, often with personal attacks. Pietists have perfected the art of shunning and excommunication. Many a pastor or lay leader has found himself permanently excluded by these apostles of love and tolerance. They should consider it a blessing from heaven.

The Holiness Code

The Reformed view of sanctification leads to a list of rules for proving acceptable Christian behavior. The strictest codes bar dancing or the observation of anyone dancing, all forms of alcohol, including communion wine, all makeup and jewelry, all movies and theatre, girls wearing slacks or shorts, anything suggestive of gambling, and all forms of tobacco. Each group has its peculiar variations upon the holiness code, which tends to slacken over a period of time. At first the Methodists were very keen on the code but lax about doctrine. When the Methodists became more liberal, conservatives within their ranks broke away to form their own denominations, trying to recapture the buzz of the holiness tradition. Hence, we have such groups as the Wesleyan Methodists, the Nazarenes, and the Church of God.

Sanctification

J-771

"This doctrine concerning the inability and wickedness of our natural free will and concerning our conversion and regeneration, namely, that it is a work of God alone and not of our powers, is [impiously, shamefully, and maliciously] abused in an unchristian manner both by enthusiasts and by Epicureans; and by their speeches many persons have become disorderly and irregular, and idle and indolent in all Christian exercises of prayer, reading and devout meditation; for they say that, since they are unable from their own natural powers to convert themselves to God, they will always strive with all their might against God, or wait until God converts them by force against their will; or since they can do nothing in these spiritual things, but everything is the operation of God the Holy Ghost alone, they will regard, hear, or read neither the Word nor the Sacrament, but wait until God without means..."
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article II, Free Will, 46, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 899. Tappert, p. 530. Heiser, p. 246.

No Drinking or Cards

Germans have formed Pietistic groups, but no German group has ever banned alcohol. One member of a German Canadian congregation remembered the time when the pastor, John Reble, also the president of the synod, stopped by for a visit and saw the boys playing a game of cards. The pastor said nothing but delivered a blistering sermon on Sunday about the dangers of playing cards. The same pastor had a drink at every home he visited, because it was polite to offer beverages, often home-made, and horribly rude to refuse them. The Augustana Synod banned cards and would have considered one drink per pastoral visit a sign of Satan’s visitation.

My wife made the mistake of having a glass of wine at the company dinner of the engineering firm where she worked. Seated next to her was a Fundamentalist, a good friend of ours. My wife left the party early with me and learned later that the engineers had turned the gathering into a wild bash, crashing another party and getting themselves thrown out. The Fundamentalist had no problem with the drunken revelry. He spent a lot of time condemning that solitary glass of wine. “You are a Christian. They are not.” Similarly, he was deeply disturbed by the concept of the Means of Grace. He could not accept the sacraments as anything more than symbolic.

The holier-than-thou attitude of Pietists is seldom hidden away. It may be based on never drinking, never smoking, or always being better than others in certain ways. Otto Heick (History of Christian Thought) was an LCA Lutheran but also a member of a Pietistic group. He told me his Pietistic group raised a large amount of money for missions, “quietly, in a week’s time.” He left no doubt that his group was superior in that regard to an ordinary Lutheran congregation. And he was a Lutheran seminary professor, with dual church membership.[47]

Proud Pietists

J-772

"Another very repulsive concomitant of the Reformed false teaching is spiritual pride. Because those who harbor the conception of an activity of the Holy Ghost apart from the means of grace are dealing in an illusory, man-made quality, they regard themselves, as experience amply proves, as the truly spiritual people and first-class Christians, while they consider those who in simple faith abide by the divinely appointed means of grace, 'intellectualists,' having a mere Christianity of the head; at best, second-rate Christians."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 162.

Some people think that conservative Pietists turn liberal over a period of time, but instead they simply become liberal Pietists. Being dominated by the Law does not change for Pietists, but the focus of the Law does. Conservative Pietists condemn alcohol, but liberal Pietists condemn big business, Western democracies, and the Republican Party, while condemning conservative Pietists. Those who wish to understand liberal Pietism should read Walter Rauschenbusch’s swan song, The Theology of the Social Gospel. All the Biblical doctrines are re-interpreted to deny the divinity of Christ. The book eloquently makes fun of the old Pietists while stating that congregations should be more careful about the kind of person they take in as members. A conservative Baptist church would supposedly turn down someone known to be a drinker, but a liberal Social Gospel congregation should turn down someone who is openly anti-union, in the view of Rauschenbusch.

At first, in the 1960s, the Pietists of The American Lutheran Church (TALC) were shocked at the liberalism of the Lutheran Church in America. Soon TALC leaders launched their own in-house attack on inerrancy and brought their synod up to speed, as they like to say. TALC leaders backed Lutherans Concerned with monetary grants and beat the LCA in declaring altar fellowship with the Reformed. Needless to say, some of the same TALC leaders became conservative dissenters in ELCA, when they found themselves shunned and rejected for being old fuddy-duddies. The legalism of the holiness code never ends. Each fad of the liberals is made necessary for fellowship and salvation, but fads quickly become threadbare and boring.

"Deeds Not Creeds"

Anti-Confessionalism and Missions

The Pietists have long had a slogan, “Deeds, not creeds.” Spener began this with his emphasis on good works, which is in harmony with the Reformed view of sanctification. It is at first gratifying, then terrifying to have people demonstrate outward signs of living a Christian life. Many times, as we can see from the Swedish Lutheran experience, it begins with a voluntary rejection of a damaging aspect of society. In 19th century Sweden, the founder of a temperance society began his work after a drunken fight broke out in his church during the sermon, and the two pugilists were women![48] The Augustana Synod in America, openly influenced by Pietism and the temperance movement, shunned alcohol. In the 1960s, the dean of women at Augustana College said in a huff, “No one ever drinks alcohol on this campus.” Everyone knew that alcohol consumption was a major factor in dorm life and social events, but the college officials would never admit it in public. After the first generation has passed on its rules for Christian behavior, the next generation feels a need to obey it outwardly. Eventually, the legalism is thrown out and the Ten Commandments with them, but the guilt remains. More than one person has said to me, emphasizing their pretense about not using liquor in so many words: “We have hidden the liquor while dad is visiting. Do not mention it. Do not even joke about it. I am begging you.”[49] The same college that officially banned alcohol in the 1960s now supports a homosexual activist group called Lutherans Concerned. Augustana College now has a Roman Catholic priest on its payroll to serve the Roman Catholic students. Pietism consistently degenerates into Unitarianism.

Pietists began the first mission societies, which were ecumenical, parachurch groups. Cooperation went both ways. The Reformed supported Lutheran Pietistic efforts, and Lutherans participated in Reformed works. Needless to say, when so many good things were happening through cooperation, people could not stop and fight over the sacraments and the efficacy of the Word.

Pietists do not like schools. They will say, “Schools benefit us, so they are not missions.” Pietists close down Lutheran schools to generate more money for missions. The Missouri Synod took the lead in this area, decapitating all their prep schools, which were designed to support church vocations. It helps men to have a head-start in languages by starting Latin in high school and Greek and Hebrew in college. The purpose of a prep school is to have an atmosphere where church vocations are emphasized in the context of a high quality, classical, but low cost school.[50] WELS bemoaned the stupidity of the Missouri Synod in closing their prep schools and then closed two of their four prep schools, also in the name of missions.[51] Now both synods have millions of dollars of foundation and insurance grants but fewer pastors and declining educational standards. No matter how intelligent a man is, he will gain far more from seminary if he enters pastoral training without the need to start cold in Greek and Hebrew.

The early Lutheran Pietists were fanatical about studying the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, as Heick’s work shows, but over a period of time, the educational requirements for Pietistic ministers slacken. ELCA candidates enter and leave seminary with a dash of Greek and no Hebrew. ELCA officials now admit that their future pastors enter seminary without even knowing the Small Catechism! WELS and Missouri leaders, look at ELCA. That is your future.

Fuller Pietism

Fuller Seminary in Pasadena was formed to teach inerrancy, although its initial position was really quite soft. Nevertheless, the faculty went through a revolution and Fuller adopted an anti-inerrancy statement. When The Battle for the Bible, about Fuller, was published, Harold Lindsell, the author, was attacked by Fuller for being “bitter and jealous” that he did not become president. In fact, the author was offered the position and turned it down. Notice how the amazingly successful president of Fuller Seminary, the late David Hubbard, defined the problem of inerrancy. Like most liberals in the driver’s seat, his words drip with sarcasm and scorn. The words are taken directly from the brochure Fuller mailed the author during a vain effort to recruit him.[52]

Fuller: The Bible Does Not Consider God’s Word Inerrant

J-773

"Were we to distinguish our position from that of some of our brothers and sisters who perceive their view of Scripture as more orthodox than ours, several points could be made: 1) we would stress the need to be aware of the historical and literary process by which God brought the Word to us...4) we would urge that the emphasis be placed where the Bible itself places it - on its message of salvation and its instruction for living, not on its details of geography or science, though we acknowledge the wonderful reliability of the Bible as a historical source book; 5) we would strive to develop our doctrine of Scripture by hearing all that the Bible says, rather than by imposing on the Bible a philosophical judgment of our own as to how God ought to have inspired the Word."
David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

Inerrancy Misleading and Inappropriate

J-774

"Where inerrancy refers to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches through the biblical writers, we support its use. Where the focus switches to an undue emphasis on matters like chronological details, the precise sequence of events, and numerical allusions, we would consider the term misleading and inappropriate. Its dangers, when improperly defined, are: 1) that it implies a precision alien to the minds of the Bible writers and their own use of Scriptures; 2) that it diverts attention from the message of salvation and the instruction in righteousness which are the Bible's key themes;...5) that too often it has undermined our confidence in the Bible we have... 6)that it prompts us to an inordinate defensiveness of Scripture which seems out of keeping with the bold confidence with which the prophets, the apostles and our Lord proclaimed it."
David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

Inerrancy Advocates Are Against the Bible and Tick Me Off!

J-775

"We resent unnecessary distractions; we resist unbiblical diversions… Can anyone believe that all other activities should be suspended until all evangelicals agree on precise doctrinal statements? We certainly cannot."
David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

The downhill doctrinal slide of Pietism begins with placing the good works of man above the truth of God’s Word. At every stage of the decline, the Pietists firmly believe that they must tolerate doctrinal laxity in the name of getting more done, for the glory of God, of course. Soon they find themselves helpless to stop the radicalism of the next generation. The last bishop of the Lutheran Church in America, James Crumley, begged his extremely liberal staff not to succumb to the radicalism of the newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Soon, those same staff-members were ousted for being too conservative by ELCA Bishop Herb Chilstrom’s network.

Road to Unitarianism.

From anti-creed to anti-Trinity

Pietism begins with the slogan of “deeds, not creeds.” In every case, Pietism has spawned Unitarianism in the next generation or two. The University of Halle was the mecca of Pietism in one generation and the headquarters for apostasy in the next. The American Lutheran congregations most devoted to unionism in the 19th century became Congregational or worse in the next. Fuller Seminary, somewhat conservative but ecumenical to a fault, became an anti-inerrancy school in only one generation. The Augustana Synod blended Pietism from the old country with orthodoxy from Capital Seminary (now Trinity, ELCA, in Columbus, Ohio). Lutheran orthodoxy was taught at Augustana Seminary until the 1930s, and then the old faculty was removed at once. The Pietists at Augustana were instrumental in bringing the Social Gospel Movement into their seminary, by calling A. D. Mattson to the faculty.

The original Wisconsin Synod was as Pietistic and unionistic as a Lutheran group might be. Many congregations offered both Reformed and Lutheran communion, both Reformed and Lutheran catechism.[53] Some congregations, like St. Paul’s in Columbus, were named “German Lutheran and Reformed.” Many congregations, like old St. John’s in Milwaukee, had Reformed splits in their early days. The Wisconsin Synod, later influenced by the great theologian Adolph Hoenecke and the synodical leaders Bading and Brenner, who rejected Pietism and unionism, joined the Synodical Conference. However, the Pietists within the Wisconsin Synod were beaten down but not conquered. They lost, too, when the Wisconsin Synod finally voted to break with the Missouri Synod after two decades of dithering. However, the Pietists did not give up. They quietly networked and got their men into key positions, using training at Fuller Seminary as their uniting force. After years of denying that anyone ever went to Fuller Seminary, even though their own Lawrence Otto Olson bragged up his D. Min. degree from Fuller, the Church Growth advocates finally came out of the closet and said, “Yes, we love Church Growth. Yes, we love religious projects with ELCA. Yes, we want women to be ordained. Now try to stop us.”

Ordination of Women

The ordination of women is a natural step for Pietists, a necessary outgrowth of the cell group. In the cell group, which is anti-Means of Grace and anti-confessional, anyone may serve as the leader. In general, women tend to be more spiritual than men and enjoy taking these positions. Cell group method books call them “lay pastors” so there is little difference between serving as a pastor in a cell group and serving as one in the congregation. Although ordination is far more important than the Pietists allow, they have already accomplished their goal when they have women teaching men and women in authority over men in the church.

Historically, women’s ordination has begun with the anti-Christian cults, whenever an alpha female can gather a group together. The Pentecostal groups follow, since they believe the Holy Spirit calls them directly in their dreams and visions. One Pentecostal woman baptized herself in a bathtub, got her tongue-speaking going by saying “yabba-dabba-doo” repeatedly, and announced she had the gift of preaching, according to her submissive husband.

If we concede that the Confessions are old-fashioned, boring, and irrevelant, even though they are not, and we claim that doctrine is divisive, then there is no particular reason why women should not be ordained and called to serve as pastors of congregations. The Lutheran Church in America took the lead in dismissing the inerrancy of the Scriptures and in teaching the flexibility of the Confessions, so they naturally, as liberal Pietists, ordained the first women pastors in America, in 1970.[54] The American Lutheran Church followed. Acknowledging the ordination of known lesbians and homosexuals followed soon after.

Method Actors

Since Pietism rejects the Confessions, the efficacy of the Word, and the Means of Grace, advocates of Enthusiasm must trust in methods. The key to understanding the Enthusiasts is not only in realizing their separation of the Holy Spirit from the Word but also in seeing the implication of that concept. The Reformed do more than imply what their Enthusiasm means. They teach it quite openly – The Word of God is dead and lifeless without human aid. Here is the secret to cell groups, tongue speaking, the seeker service, entertainment evangelism, friendship evangelism, child evangelism, mission vision statements, and all the flotsam of the Reformed. Why must the ministers pretend to be used car salesmen, talk show hosts, or stand-up comedians? In their eyes, God’s Word is dead without a boost from them to make it appealing and get results. Since they have no faith in the Holy Spirit working through the Word alone, they measure their success by visible results they can put on a graph. They take people out to their parking lots and tell them how many acres they have paved. That is good news for the National Asphalt Paving Association,[55] but it means nothing to God to watch these people clown around and carry on to win the approval of people, who are not even given the chance to hear the saving Word of Truth. In a word, these men are ashamed of the Gospel.

Pietistic Methods

J-776

"Pietist preachers were anxious to discover and in a certain sense to separate the invisible congregation from the visible congregation. They had to meet demands different than those of the preceding period: they were expected to witness, not in the objective sense, as Luther did, to God's saving acts toward all men, but in a subjective sense of faith, as they themselves had experienced it. In this way Pietism introduced a tendency toward the dissolution of the concept of the ministry in the Lutheran Church."
Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.

J-777

"All those doctrinal questions which were not immediately connected with the personal life of faith were avoided. The standard for the interpretation of Scripture thus became the need of the individual for awakening, consolation, and exhortation. The congregation as a totality was lost from view; in fact, pietistic preaching was (and is) more apt to divide the congregation than to hold it together."
Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.

We might as well start on the bottom of Pietistic practices with the “holy laughter movement,” also known as the “Toronto Blessing.” Pentecostals wore out speaking in tongues, singing in tongues, as well as dancing and being slain in the spirit. They have done every rock version of every spiritual ditty one could imagine. What was left? Holy laughter! (They are actually reviving an old Pentecostal fad.) The minister begins a Toronto Blessing service by telling some lame jokes. People are already set to laugh their heads off. After a few jokes, people begin falling out of their chairs laughing. It helps if the minister does this too, as Richard Roberts, son of Oral Roberts, has done on television. Instead of piping their eyes with tears of contrition, yelling “Glory, glory, glory” on their backs on the floor, the Pentecostals now howl and bellow with laughter, with their backs on the floor. This too will fade and become wearisome. In contrast, the historic Lutheran liturgy is always uplifting to man because the worship service glorifies God, always emphasizing His grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Promise Keepers, a cancerous growth from cell groups and Pentecostalism, has also run through its time of excitement, its “movement of the Spirit,” and its roaringly high income. Wildly ecumenical and emotional, it offered to bring Protestants, Catholics, and Mormon men together in one big hug and cry. Stadiums were filled. Now they are not. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Visible and Invisible Church

J-778

"No one will open his eyes to the fact that mere human devices and doctrines are ensnaring souls, weakening consciences, dissipating Christian liberty and faith, and replenishing hell. Wolves! Wolves! How abominably, awfully, murderous, how harassing and destructive, are these things the world over!"
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 32. Second Sunday in Advent Romans 15:4-13.

Divisive Preaching

J-779

"All those doctrinal questions which were not immediately connected with the personal life of faith were avoided. The standard for the interpretation of Scripture thus became the need of the individual for awakening, consolation, and exhortation. The congregation as a totality was lost from view; in fact, pietistic preaching was (and is) more apt to divide the congregation than to hold it together."
Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.



[42] Prayer or Bible study groups are also called koinonia, share, care, or home study groups. WELS kept changing the names, but not the method.

[43] The soviet in Soviet Union refers to councils based upon cell groups.

[44] The Peretti novels found in Christian book stores portray God’s angels as energized by prayer. Towns lacking in “prayer warriors” are set upon by demons. Lots of prayer will strengthen God’s angels enough to drive the demons away. This obviously causes people to think in terms of salvation by works.

[45] "In an article on the small group movement, J. A. Gorman notes that 'both the Church Growth Institute of Fuller Seminary and the American Institute of Church Growth became centers for influencing the use of this means for evangelizing." (Christian Education, Moody Press, 1991, pp. 509, 510) Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 126. "This writer's acquaintance with this current phenomenon is threefold: 1) he has attended one of the workshops held by Lyman Coleman; 2) he has read about a dozen books in the last ten years coming from evangelical sources [i.e. false teachers] that deal with small groups either wholly or in part; 3) he has also inquired about why a number of WELS congregations have begun to conduct small group Bible study and how they have structured these groups." Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 127. "Definition: 'A small group within the church is a voluntary intentional gathering of people, varying in number, regularly meeting together for mutual Christian purposes.' - Serendipity WELS Campus Pastors, Small Group Training Conference, Jan. 7-9, 1991, Madison. p. 2. "Bible studies from Serendipity. Serendipity makes available Bibles (with outlines and discussion questions) and topical study booklets for adults and teen-agers. See appendix D for sample study courses. Order a SERENDIPITY SMALL GROUP RESOURCES CATALOG from Serendipity, P.O. Box 1012, Littleton, CO, 80160 or call 1-800-525-9583 (In CO call 1-303-798-1313)." Notebook, School of Outreach IV, p. 225. "Introduction to Small Group Ministry outline. Evangelism Office. Buy the book Good Things Come in Small Groups, Intervarsity Press. Small Group Bible Study Materials, Serendipity, Littleton, CO (1-800-525-9563)." WELS Evangelism Workshop IV, LOCATING THE LOST, Five Year Plan For Outreach, p. 177.

[46] The CLC Church Growth salesmen yelped that I could not quote Valleskey’s class notes, which are published and kept by his students, since I did not take his class. Valleskey claimed to have inherited his notes from another professor, so he would not take responsibility for the content. However, if we examine his small body of publications, no doubts are left about his love for Reformed authors and the Church Growth Movement.

[47] Heick’s History of Christian Thought was used throughout Lutheranism for a long time. He was the most Lutheran of the professors at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, but he did not believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. He was kind to various students, including me and my wife Chris. Unlike others, he would analyze what students said during their chapel talks.

[48] Some of you think you are in difficult parishes.

[49] One successful CPA always hid his boat when his dad visited, because his father did not approve of such frills. When he thundered at voters’ meetings, one was tempted to think, “You hide your boat from your daddy?”

[50] Herman Otten told me that his father, a painter, sent him to prep school to turn him into a pastor. It is also worthwhile if students learn at an early age that church vocations are not for them. Seminaries should not be used as group therapy for the spiritually confused to find the meaning of life.

[51] WELS tried to turn another prep school into an ordinary area high school. The two surviving schools are now deemed inadequate for the supply of students. “We need another prep school,” one official said.

[52] Every so often, Fuller Seminary would phone and I would think, “They are going to chew me out for my latest article.” Instead, they were soliciting me to spend thousands of dollars to earn a degree, because I requested a catalogue. Many WELS pastors jumped me about Fuller Seminary, so I always asked them, “Have you ordered a catalogue? Do you want the latest one, to show you what they are teaching the WELS, ELCA, and LCMS leaders?”

[53] The oldest part of the Muhlenberg tradition, the General Synod, formed many union congregations, which were being de-unionized in the 1970s for a period of time. LCA pastors might serve a Reformed congregation, or a Reformed minister might serve an LCA congregation. Both would be on the ministerial roll of both denominations. After years of agonizing de-unionizing efforts, ELCA began forming new union congregations, with the Reformed, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics. One ELCA story has a photo of a Roman Catholic priest grinning at his associate, a stunningly beautiful ELCA woman pastor. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

[54] Women’s ordination required the death of LCA president Franklin C. Fry. He would not even discuss the topic. At least one of his granddaughters is an ELCA pastor. Fry led the United Lutheran Church in America in rejecting inerrancy and refused communion from an ALC leader who advocated close communion.

[55] National Asphalt Paving Association, 5100 Forbes Boulevard, Lanham, Maryland, 20706. Toll free phone: 1-800-HOT-MIXX.