Time To Study the Means of Grace

Word and Sacrament by Norma Boeckler

A large collection of quotations on the efficacy of the Word is here.

No better sign of Lutheran apostasy is its silence about the Means of Grace in the last 30 years. In fact, the Missouri battle for the Bible was simply another installment, not a long-term solution. The Missouri Synod laity and pastors opposed the rationalistic and unionistic trends that moved their synod into fellowship with the ALC, LCA, while dabbling with Romanism. Arguing for inerrancy was rather easy, since most people active in the 1960s were raised with the historic conception of the Bible being inerrant or infallible, without contradiction or error. Only those brainwashed in the Historical-Critical Method thought otherwise, but they were the leaders of the LCMS, ALC, LCA, and WELS...among the followers of Gerke and Jungkuntz. A large number of Seminex leaders graduated from Northwestern College, Watertown. Like Missouri, WELS never had the guts to deal completely with the HCM advocates. Ted Hartwig remained in WELS, launching the unisex Creeds in the odious Christian Worship.

Not trusting in the Means of Grace means turning to methods, tricks, gimmicks, techniques, mostly borrowed from business, advertising, and Enthusiasm. For example, the next trend in the Shrinker Movement is to have cuddling parties. That was old a few years ago, among the unwashed hordes of bored and lonely secularists. As the LCA used to say, now someone is going to "baptize the popular trend." Here is the post on CGM cuddling, which is bound to be more popular than snake-handling.

The Means of Grace are God's instruments to bring grace to us. He has provided everything and pledged Himself to give us his pardoning grace in no other way. The Enthusiasts hate the Means of Grace and make fun of this Biblical doctrine. Entire Biblical translations (NIV, RSV, etc) have been given over to erasing such Means of Grace passages as:

1. Baptism now saves you.


2. Is this not communion with the Body of Christ?


3. Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them...

The Word of God is powerful and effective because it is not man's program or method. The Word is like yeast in dough, slowly permeating and affecting every particle.

The Word is like seed sown carelessly and yet producing a bumper crop in the midst of many calamities caused by Satan's wiles and man's carelessness.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Time To Study the Means of Grace":

It is especially the Nicene Creed in Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal that is weak. The words "became fully human" are very weak and could be easily accepted by the neo-orthodox. All three words are open to misunderstanging. "Became" can be a process or a one time event. "Fully" does not clearly carry biblical Christology, since we accept the fact that Jesus did not have two personalities, but that he had only a divine personality, and not a human personality. Also, because of the saying, "To err is human," some may draw the conclusion that Jesus had a sinful nature. "Human" can be used in a variety of ways. Some people say, "Our dog is as human as it can be," just as a woman may say, "That dress is simply divine." Neither "human" or "divine" carry the full clarity needed in a creed.

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GJ - I can add a few more caveats to the clear and compelling ones above.

1. The same thing was done to the Athanasian Creed, but never addressed.
   
2. WELS lied and said they were forced to do it by the ecumenical commission that wrote this bastardized creed. No other Lutherans had used these Leftie creeds up to that point. So did the unionistic commission hold WELS at gunpoint or threaten to take away their grants?
   
3. Ted Hartwig, heresiarch of WELS, officially presented the feminist creeds in the magazine and the journal. Hartwig was never disciplined for promoting the Historical-Critical (apostate) approach to Isaiah. WELS PR said he was, but he simply became a rallying point for all the apostates in WELS. Meanwhile, WELS charged Missouri with no having doctrinal discipline.
   
4. WELS showed itself to be arrogant and divisive by introducing ambiguous creeds to Lutherans when all Lutherans--indeed all Christians--endorse the clear witness of the Ecumenical Creeds.
   
5. Worst of all, James Tiefel was left in charge of a hymnal.
   

Pietistic Influences Among the Midwestern Lutherans

Shrinkers have increased their quota of liquid lunches.

Read the Efficacy Mother-lode here.

The Synodical Conference was founded on Pietism rather than Lutheran Orthodoxy.

Walther wrote this in 1878:

""My dear God-fearing father had taught me from earliest childhood that the Bible is God’s Word. But I had to leave my father’s house very early, in my eighth year, to live in unbelieving circles. I did not lose the historical faith. Like an angel of God it accompanied me through life. But during those more than eight years of Gymnasium life I was unconverted."

Thus Walther recorded, when he was 67, that he had faith but was unconverted. Therefore, he was still writing as a Pietist at the peak of his career. I have not read the collected works of Walther hagiography, but I do realize he struggled with the Pietism which seemed to rescue him from rationalism while delivering him to Law bondage.

Listening to various members of Christian sects, I have often heard them say, "I was baptized and a regular church member but I was not a real Christian until..." Sometimes the event is the experience of being born-again (as they call it, misusing John 3). For Pentecostals, the conversion is to tongue-speaking and falling on the floor.

Walther himself criticized levels of faith in Law and Gospel, and told how he struggled with the norms of Pietism he learned. The confession quoted above is typical of Pietism, believing and yet being unconverted. Walther described the Bible as having only two categories - believers and unbelievers, but Walther added believers who are converted and believers who are unconverted.

The triumphalism of Walther when crowing about the Missouri Synod is apparent in his published speeches. I heard a recent version when a Missouri writer wrote to me: "The Missouri Synod is the best one because it was least affected by Pietism." Ahem - that response is a good Pietistic statement, emphasizing works and spiritual superiority.

The original Wisconsin Synod was created by Pietistic, unionistic mission societies. The Michigan Synod that joined up with Wisconsin (becoming WELS in the fullness of time) was just as anti-confessional and unionistic at first. Due to the influence of Walther, Bading, and Hoenecke, Wisconsin moved away from its Pietistic roots.

All the Scandinavians left the womb of the state church via Pietism, the Norwegians included. Pietism was the supposed answer to spiritual lethargy, alcholism, and apostasy in the state churches. In Sweden, one pastor became a leader in the temperance movement when a drunken fight between two women broke out during the sermon. Alcolism was a major social issue, and the Pietistic Methodists had a cure for everyone - the Law - take a pledge. In addition, Pentecostalism was not unknown.

The anti-confessional basis of Pietism--"doctrine divides, service unites"--contributed greatly to free thinking among the Midwestern Lutherans. The Swedish Lutherans, who eventually created the Augustana (Augsburg Confession) Synod, the struggle meant moving away from their servitude to revivalism, legalism, and Methodism. The Pietists had proven to Augustana how unreliable they could be. Like WELS, Augustana continued its lover's quarrel with Pietism, never quite divorced and yet quick to criticize. After WWII, Augustana debated whether to allow dancing on the college campus - a typical Methodist concern.

Proving and dating a born-again experience was a common requirement for Pietistic Lutherans during this time. That experience was the requirement for full membership in many cases, replacing fidelity to the Book of Concord.