The marks (notae) of Pietism are obvious:
- Cell groups are the real church while the congregation is a convenient gathering place for groups.
- Shunning.
- Doctrinal indifference and unionism.
- Halle University, the mother ship, created to promote the movement.
Fill in the blank in the following sentences, to test your Pietism I.Q.
Bishop Martin Stephan was a _______ who attended Halle University, gloried in his cell group ministry, and founded the Missouri Synod.
C.F.W. Walther was a ______ who belonged to a Holy Club and associated with Martin Stephan, usurping the leadership role while continuing the ______ cell groups for many years.
J.K.W. Loehe was influenced by the Reformed and attended the University of Berlin. Influenced by the writing of Hollaz, Loehe emphasized the Confessions, Holy Communion, and the pastoral office. The Loehe missionaries invited the Perryville ______s to join them in forming a synod. Loehe's man started the Ft. Wayne seminary, but Loehe was shunned and erased from LCMS history because he was not a ______.
Adoph Hoenecke was a ______ who graduated from Halle University, but his study of the Confessions watered down the ______ influence after graduation. He joined the ______ Wisconsin Synod, which was started by a unionistic mission society.
The Little Sect on the Prairie came from the ______ Norwegian tradition, which is why they are hotter than Georgia asphalt for UOJ.
Today ELCA teaches UOJ, with an emphasis on universal absolution, promoting cell groups and unionism, because they are also from the ______ tradition.
Answers to the above test - the correct word for every single blank is Pietist.
The Olde Synodical Conference Pietists Today
- They refuse to allow doctrinal discussions, because they hate the Confessions and embrace doctrinal indifference.
- They love Church Growth and Emergent Church because both forms of Enthusiasm promote cell groups, the real church in their eyes.
- Liturgical worship and Biblical sermons are disappearing because Pietists always favor unLutheran worship.
- If a pastor or layman wants to discuss doctrine, that person is shunned and insulted, along with his family members. Anyone who persists in questioning Pietism is expelled as a "trouble-maker" or worse.
- The pastors go along with this abuse because they are afraid of being shunned and expelled.
- The LCMS, WELS, and ELS happily work with ELCA because they share the same doctrinal foundation - UOJ - and the same repudiation of the Scriptures. Nevertheless, they act holier than thou because Pietists need to keep up appearances. What is more fun than denouncing ELCA while grabbing funds for working with them?
- The three Bibles promoted by the Conference partners are: LCMS - the Calvinist ESV; WELS - the Universalist porno-mytho-NIV; ELS - the Babtist NKJV.
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Brett Meyer
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The effects of doctrinal indifference are severe. On one hand most (W)ELSians will avoid any discussion of doctrine where Scripture and the Confessions are the sole arbiters. On the other hand they will gladly enter into a doctrinal discussion when everything is open to consideration and no interpretation is condemned. An example would be the so-called Bible studies where everyone shares what the verse or chapter means to them and the Pastor, layman or laywoman leading the group simply acknowledges each opinion as a viable alternative.
The result over time is abhorrent to anyone who holds God's Word as the supreme authority and not open to personal interpretation. A prime example is the Synod President's brother, Pastor Neal Schroeder's question at the 2011 Emmaus Conference in Washington state. He asked the Synodical CEO's whether the Lutheran church should continue to teach that God works solely through the Word purely taught and Sacraments rightly distributed. He proposed that God also works through the Word impurely taught and Sacraments wrongly distributed. He had an Eastern European example to fortify his position which he admitted was contrary to the historic Lutheran confession. A few LCMS pastors mumbled, "no,no, no" but most of the attendees had no reaction and simply waited to see if there was a counterpoint from the Synod presidents.
It is a subjective determination as to how far down the road to utter apostasy the (W)ELS has gone. But the appalling lack of public repudiation for all of the unChristian and anti-Lutheran doctrine and practice which is running rampant speaks volumes to the speed at which they are making the journey.
2 Peter 1:20-21, Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The effects of doctrinal indifference are severe. On one hand most (W)ELSians will avoid any discussion of doctrine where Scripture and the Confessions are the sole arbiters. On the other hand they will gladly enter into a doctrinal discussion when everything is open to consideration and no interpretation is condemned. An example would be the so-called Bible studies where everyone shares what the verse or chapter means to them and the Pastor, layman or laywoman leading the group simply acknowledges each opinion as a viable alternative.
The result over time is abhorrent to anyone who holds God's Word as the supreme authority and not open to personal interpretation. A prime example is the Synod President's brother, Pastor Neal Schroeder's question at the 2011 Emmaus Conference in Washington state. He asked the Synodical CEO's whether the Lutheran church should continue to teach that God works solely through the Word purely taught and Sacraments rightly distributed. He proposed that God also works through the Word impurely taught and Sacraments wrongly distributed. He had an Eastern European example to fortify his position which he admitted was contrary to the historic Lutheran confession. A few LCMS pastors mumbled, "no,no, no" but most of the attendees had no reaction and simply waited to see if there was a counterpoint from the Synod presidents.
It is a subjective determination as to how far down the road to utter apostasy the (W)ELS has gone. But the appalling lack of public repudiation for all of the unChristian and anti-Lutheran doctrine and practice which is running rampant speaks volumes to the speed at which they are making the journey.
2 Peter 1:20-21, Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
