Peshtigo Fire Anniversary

From Norm Teigen:

Peshtigo WI fire has higher death toll than the Chicago fire

On Sunday, October 8, 1871, fire leveled a broad swath of Michigan and Wisconsin, including the cities of Peshtigo, Holland, Manistee, and Port Huron. At least 1200 people died as a result of the fire. Nearly half the fatalities occurred in Peshtigo, Wisconsin.

That same night, the Great Chicago Fire erupted in nearby Illinois.
Conditions were ripe for major conflagrations that year. Uninterrupted drought plagued the Midwest into early October and winds were strong. Vast tracts of forest burned for a week in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin. When the wind increased and shifted direction, fire fighters were unable to control the flames any longer. Within hours, several Midwestern cities and towns were reduced to charcoal and ash.

{source-The Library of Congress}


More on the Great Peshtigo Fire

GJ - Note: the Church Growth Movment has destroyed more churches that both fires combined.

Walther and UOJ

From a layman:

I've been reading Walther's sermons found in, "The Word Of His Grace" copyright 1978. In the sermon "Righteous Through Faith", page 4 it states, "And behold, on the third day after His death God the Father Himself awoke Him from the dead, confirming the word of victory of the dying Redeemer and calling to all sinners, "Yes, it is fulfilled!" And so he declared the whole world righteous. "I am reconciled! You are redeemed! Your debt is paid; and the righteousness that avails before Me is won for you."

Also, in the sermon " ", page 232 it states, "Are you saying that God has already in Christ absolved all men, including all the ungodly, all slaves of iniquity, all unbelievers, all mockers, all slanderers? Who could believe that? ---And yet it is so, dear friends"

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GJ - Yes, Walther is the main source for Synodical Conference UOJ. The language they use is plagiarized from his sermons. They run back to Walther's Easter Absolution sermon whenever their UOJ is threatened. They like the man who turned Roman Catholic, too - Ed Preuss.

The Methodists use Wesley's sermons as their doctrinal textbook. That is why Methodists say, "We have no theology."

True, Lutherans used an edited version of Luther's sermons for the Large Catechism. But they also dealt with the doctrinal issues for years before issuing and signing the Formula of Concord and the Book of Concord, 1580. Lutherans do not use all of Luther's works as their confessions. We have plenty of Luther in the Book of Concord, but no one thinks every phrase of Luther must be preserved as official doctrine. Luther was opposed to that kind of treatment.

Did someone issue a set of Walther's sermons and make that the new Book of Concord? The current synodical leaders are being dishonest and slippery in assigning to Walther a primacy in doctrine above that of the Scriptures and the Confessions. If I remember correctly, Walther promoted the European Lutherans. He edited a compend for his classes. In that regard he was not a Waltherian but a Hyper-Euro-Lutheran.

Walther had many fine qualities, but he was messed up about justification by faith. He was converted through Pietism and never lost that foundation, as he confessed. UOJ comes from Pietism, not from the Bible, not from the Book of Concord.

ELCA is Pietistic in its roots. ELCA is also Universalistic, only more obviously and honestly so.

WELS had an evangelism campaign. The motto was, "I am saved, just like you." Did anyone object? The apostates have won.

Some Attributes of Pietism - From Spener

Pietism was a movement that emphasized works rather than doctrine. The Pietists were unionistic from the beginning, compromising with the Reformed. Some attributes of Pietism include:
1. The lay-led cell group, or Bible study group, considered the "real church" within the larger and less active church.
2. Scorn toward doctrinal orthodoxy and those who consider it important.
3. Willingness to give up the sacraments and the efficacy of the Word to work with the Reformed.
4. A holier-than-thou attitude created by the cell groups being the "real church."
5. Love-bombing those coming into the cells while shunning those who leave.
6. Always measuring the church and the individual by works.
7. A tendency to become Unitarian in the next generation.

Walther was converted by Pietism and never gave it up entirely. He could not bring himself to criticize Spener, the founder of Pietism.

ELCA was founded by the earlier Pietist, Muhlenberg. Later migrations of Pietists made up additional elements of ELCA (Augustana Synod - Swedish Pietists).

The foundation of the Wisconsin Synod was Pietistic.

The Little Sect on the Prairie was largely Norwegian and influenced by Pietism.

The attributes of Pietism are the same as the Church Growth Movement and the latest version of CGM: the Purpose-Driven Church.