following the cell group method of the Reformed leader Labadie,
a former Roman Catholic.
Pietism – Essay
Jacob Spener
Jacob Spener published his Pia Desideria (Pious Wishes) in 1675 when he was 40 years old. The essay was simply an essay, published as a preface to another book. Heick summarized the proposals as follows:
“It contains six proposals for a reformation of the Church:
(1) a more diligent study of the Bible;
(2) a more serious application of Luther’s doctrine of the general priesthood of all believers;
(3) confession of Christ by deed rather than a fruitless search after theological knowledge;
(4) prayer for unbelievers and erring Christians rather than useless dogmatic disputations;
(5) reform of the theological curriculum with emphasis on personal piety;
(6) devotional arrangement of sermons instead of formal arrangement after the manner of rhetoric.”
Otto W. Heick, A History of Christian Thought, two volumes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966, II, p. 21f.
Heick called Spener the “first union theologian” (HCT, II, p. 23). Spener rejected Calvin’s double predestination but accepted his view of the Lord’s Supper. The Pietists rejected baptismal regeneration (HCT, II, p. 24), so the effect of the movement was to keep Lutherans as nominal Lutherans while embracing Enthusiasm and working actively with the Reformed.
“Spener maintained that the doctrinal difference between the two churches of the Reformation, the Lutheran and the Reformed, was such that it should no longer exclude a mutual recognition in the faith. In this manner Spener and the Pietists in general did the spade work for the church unions of the nineteenth century.”
Otto W. Heick, A History of Christian Thought, two volumes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966, II, p. 21f.
Two additional characteristics of Pietism mentioned by Heick are: 1) chiliasm, a focus upon the endtimes; and 2) an emphasis upon the blood of Christ. One early and important Pietist, Johann Bengel, taught that the blood of Christ was drained from His body on the cross, not reunited with His body, but stored in heaven for the sprinkling of sinners in justification. That is why American Lutheran Pietists have had problems with millennialism and why Pietistic hymns are often so bloody.
“There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”
William Cowper, “There Is a Fountain,” The Lutheran Hymnal. See also “Jesus Thy Blood and Righteousness” by Zinzendorf.
Pietism is a complicated and extensive subject to treat. The movement influenced all denominations in various ways and remains with us today in various ways. Many of our favorite hymns come from the Pietists and the common table prayer, “Come Lord Jesus,” was written by Count Zinzendorf, a man so influential that Halle sent Henry Melchior Muhlenberg to America to counter his influence among Lutherans. This created an ironic situation, where a Pietist was sent to keep Lutherans from following another Pietist. The Muhlenberg tradition in America became the largest segment of the Lutheran Church in America when it merged in 1962. Another significant group was the Augustana Synod, the Swedish Lutheran denomination formed to bring Pietism to America.
Muhlenberg and Pietism
"The pietism and unionism of Muhlenberg and his colaborers was the door through which, in the days of Wesley and Whitefield, revivalism had found an early, though limited, entrance into the Lutheran Church."
F. Bente, American Lutheranism, 2 vols., The United Lutheran Church, Gen Synod, General Council, United Synod in the South, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1919, II, p. 78.
It was not possible to merge all the doctrinally indifferent Lutherans together in the 1960s. The Norwegian Pietists and conservative Germans of the old American Lutheran Church (1930) formed The American Lutheran Church in 1960. Although the German side of this merger was more inclined toward orthodoxy, we can find in Professor Lenski’s excellent commentaries a reference to the issue of dancing, an issue among Pietists. That does not make Lenski a Pietist, but it shows that it was an issue in his group as well. He also wrote books for pastors to use for Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services, also typical of the agenda of Pietism. Although one will now find Sunday and Wednesday evening services expected among the Fundamentalists, it is not part of Lutheran parish planning, except for mid-week services in Advent and Lent.
"Since the age of Rationalism and Lutheran Pietism a new spirit has crept into the life of the church which is un-Lutheran, un-Evangelical, and un-biblical. The Sacraments have been neglected at the expense of the Word."
Walter G. Tillmanns, "Means of Grace: Use of," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, II, p. 1505.
Characteristics of 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 the conservative synods, we can see why rejection of the efficacy of the Word and welcoming the doctrines and methods of Pietism go claw in claw.
A. Cell Groups – lay led prayer or Bible study groups, recently called koinonia, share, care, or home study 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. Since the Means of Grace are set aside, prayer becomes the means of grace. The Reformed emphasize prayer groups and prayer as a means of grace, so Reformed material is extremely attractive to Lutheran Pietists. 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!
When the author warned a Missouri Synod congregation against all lay led cell groups, since they usually are 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 group became very hostile and did not want to discuss the topic. Then the woman admitted her anger and what happened subsequently. She said, “Now I know what you meant.” She was impressed by the anger expressed by a Lutheran leader about something so basic to all Lutherans.
WELS Endorsement of Cell Groups
"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."
Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 126.
"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 pray for God’s grace and forgiveness, then how much better would it be to speak in tongues? Every glossalalia salesman acts as if he swallowed the Holy Ghost feathers and all, so innocent people are 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 left Lutheranism 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 groups. Who showed up for work day? The groups. Who gave most of the offering? The groups. Before we had the koinonia groups, nothing was going on.”
Anti-Means of Grace
"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.
"The church is no longer the community of those who have been called by the Word and the Sacraments, but 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."
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 divisive, because they not only act superior, but also because they set themselves up against the congregation. Many Baptists will admit angrily 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 group is the real church. These words are often spoken by Lutheran Pietists: my church is 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.
B. Doctrinal Indifference – Life over doctrine, heart versus head religion
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 countered 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.
"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 askes: "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.
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. A handful of their books could be palmed by any adult. 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,” 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 by 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.
C. 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 observing anyone dancing, all forms of alcohol, including communion wine, all makeup and jewelry, all movies and theatre, girls wearing slacks or shorts, 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 broke away to form their own denominations, trying to recapture the holiness tradition. Hence, we have such groups as the Wesleyan Methodists, the Nazarenes, and the Church of God.
Sanctification
"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.
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, also the president of the synod, stopped by for a visit and saw the boys playing a game of cards. He 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.
One woman made the mistake of having a drink at a company dinner, while seated next to a Fundamentalist, a good friend. She left early with her husband and learned that the engineers turned the gathering into a wild party, crashing another party and getting themselves thrown out. The Fundamentalist had no problem with that. He spent a lot of time condemning the solitary glass of wine the next day at work. “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. One member of a Pietistic group told me how they 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.
Proud Pietists
"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 over a period of time, but instead they simply become liberal Pietists. Being dominated by the Law does not change, 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 Pietism should read Walter Rauschenbusch’s swan song, The Theology of the Social Gospel. All the Biblical doctrines are re-intrepreted 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 turn down someone known to be a drinker, but a liberal congregation should turn down someone who is openly anti-union.
At first, in the 1960s, the Pietists of The American Lutheran Church were shocked at the liberalism of the Lutheran Church in America. TALC. 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, 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.
D. 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! 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 no one would ever 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, “We have locked up the liquor while dad is visiting. Do not mention it. Do not joke about it. I am begging you.” 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.
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 are for us. 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, Greek and Hebrew in college. WELS bemoaned the stupidity of the Missouri Synod in closing prep schools and then closed two of their four schools, also in the name of missions. Now both synods have millions of dollars of foundation and insurance grants, but fewer pastors and poorly trained candidates. 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 the requirement for ministers slackens. ELCA candidates enter and leave seminary with a dash of Greek and no Hebrew. ELCA officials admit that their future pastors do not even know 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, the author was attacked by Fuller for being “bitter and jealous” that he did not become president. Notice how the amazingly successful president of Fuller Seminary, the late David Hubbard, defined the problem. 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.
The Bible Does Not Consider God’s Word Inerrant
"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 judgement 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.
Inerrancy Misleading and Inappropriate
"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.
Inerrancy Advocates Are Against the Bible and Tick Me Off
"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.
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 by ELCA Bishop Herb Chilstrom’s network for being too conservative.
E. 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, 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, when 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 Luthern group might be. Many congregations offered both Reformed and Lutheran communion, both Reformed and Lutheran catechism. Some congregations, like St. Paul’s in Columbus, had Lutheran and Reformed in their titles. Many congregations, like old St. John’s in Milwaukee, had Reformed splits in their early days. The Wisconsin Synod, influenced by the great theologian Adolph Hoenecke and the synodical leaders Bading and Brenner, rejected Pietism and unionism, joining 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 Larry 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.”
F. 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.
Women tend to be more spiritual than men, in general, and enjoy taking these position. 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 the Confessions as being 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. The American Lutheran Church followed. The ordination of known lesbians and homosexuals followed soon after.
G. Method Actors
Since Pietist 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 the 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? 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, 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 Asphalt Association of America, 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.
Pietistic Methods
"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.
"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 with the “holy laughter movement,” also known as the “Toronto blessing.” Pentecostals wore out speaking in tongues, singing in tongues, dancing and slaying in the spirit. They have done every rock version of every spiritual ditty one could imagine. What was left? The minister begins by telling some dumb 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. Instead of piping their eyes with tears of contrition, yelling “Glory, glory, glory” on their backs on the floor, they howl and bellow with laughter, with their backs on the floor. This too will fade and become wearisome, although the historical Lutheran liturgy is always uplifting to man and glorifying to God.
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 roaring high income. Wildly ecumenical and emotional, it offered to bring Protestants, Catholics, and Mormons together in one big hug and cry. Stadiums were filled. Now they are not. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
