I heard many reports about SP Schroeder's opening remarks, but I cannot get the video to run so far. That suggests the servers are unable to keep up with the demand.
Readers are understandably ecstatic about the affirmation of Biblical, Lutheran doctrine and Schroeder's outright rejection of Church Growth doctrine. I will say more when I can hear the address itself.
Lutherans have been looking for this ever since Fuller Seminary took over their synods in the distant past. I date the WELS takeover from 1977, when Ron Roth began publishing TELL with a positive endorsement from SP Naumann. As bad as Mischke was with CG, Naumann let the ideology get started. Likewise, Robert Preus installed a CG program at The Surrendered Fort. Before he died, Preus wrote against Romanism, which was taking over the seminary as an answer (?) to the Shrinkers (Werning, et al.). Thus Enthusiasm is countered with more Enthusiasm, Romanism promoted by errorists to stop in inroads of Fuller Seminary!
Al Barry was elected LCMS President around 1992, when the doctrinal errors of CG were well documented. I was invited to the Purple Palace by Paul McCain, but he turned hostile the moment I said Barry was too mild about CG. Thus Missouri squandered an opportunity to turn from unionistic Pietism and Enthusiasm. Nine years of unchecked growth and Barryolatry gave Missouri the reign of Kieschnick.
Yesterday, WELS elected one of the worst CG leaders, Jim Huebner, as First VP. I anticipated that Church and Change would rally the synod staff and most DPs to vote in a solid block for their choice. The CG minders always make sure that no word is spoken against one of their own, so they can turn lay votes their way too. Nevertheless, the post is not the same since Wayne Mueller made himself virtual SP and handed himself a fat salary to boot. Mueller was voted out of office, but the VP-elect, Kolander, refused to serve, so Mueller was voted back in. Why take illegal drugs when you can have the same nightmarish experience watching WELS elections?
Efficacy of the Word Alone
The power of the Word comes from affirming sound doctrine and rejecting false doctrine. If Lutherans cannot do this at every level, they are not Lutherans but Pietists.
Conventions have only the slightest impact compared to the doctrinal leadership of the officials, pastors, and laity. If there is a serious, synod-wide study of the Book of Concord, that will unfetter the doctrinal aptitude of the membership.
In the last year I began hearing from friends from long ago, not to mention new friends from blogging. Their response to SP Schroeder's leadership has been universally positive. In fact, he is the only official I can recall to have shown doctrinal leadership which is both Biblical and Confessional. For example, I admire what Jack and Robert Preus accomplished in their day, but they limited their efforts by appealing to the Biblical piety of Missouri, letting inerrancy suffice as an issue. As Scaer said about the Inerrancy Conference, "The only thing they agree on is inerrancy." Mrs. Ichabod and I went to the Chicago gathering, which Preus and Marquart also attended. It was a rainbow coalition, with some of the Lutherans representing a compromising inerrancy at that! The room was filled with Pentecostals, Babtists, etc. (Shrinkers will be saddened to learn that I refused to participate in singing.) To say that the Bible is completely true, without error or contradiction, is no more than claiming that water is wet. Stopping at the inerrancy of the Word is a grave error, one which killed the Missouri revolution and handed the victory to apostates lying in wait.
Pasadena Follies
The Fooler Seminary professors appealed to the vanity of the Midwestern Lutherans by saying conservative church bodies would grow--according to studies!--if only they would unleash the power of marketing. McGavran told Larry Olson (DMin, Fuller) to harvest with a scythe, "not with a penknife."
Starting with Robert Schuller, who claimed the invention of Church Growth, and Fuller Seminary, where McGavran and Wagner gathered all the denominational officials, apostasy spread to the point where chuckleheads like Hunter, Werning, Beeson, Stanley, Driscoll, Stetzer, and Sweet have assumed the role of Doctors of the Lutheran Church. This power was not grabbed by the Enthusiasts, but handed to them - with millions of synod offering dollars.
Naming Names
I remember John Lawrenz denouncing a fine paper by Pastor Sauer. "He named names!" That is one of the Shrinkers' worst condemnations. And - "They were not there to defend themselves!" John failed to recall that he was criticizing Sauer behind the man's back, naming names. In fact, he made Sauer's commendable essay look like sin. Sauer was not there to defend himself when John yelled, "His church is dead!"
Naming names has a fine tradition, going back to the Scriptures, if done correctly. The concept is simple - identify the false doctrine and who is teaching it. That is not a personal attack. Publicly refuting false doctrine is not a violation of the 8th Commandment. Matthew 18 is not required, for similar reasons. The most hateful thing a pastor or layman can do is overlook false doctrine, excuse it, and pretend it is not blasphemy against God's Word.
For all their professed sensitivity, the Shrinkers have proven themselves the Largest, Established, Permanent, Floating Slander Machine in Lutherdom. They transcend synodical boundaries, with Hunter and Werning just as active in WELS/ELS as they are in Missouri. Werning chased one critic of CG out of two different synods, Missouri and the ELS. Fellow Book of Concord students - he was not alone, as everyone knows by now. The Shrinkers cannot make a case for their doctrine, so they howl about their hurt feelings while burying their opponents in Dreck.
