Bored Left a New Comment

bored has left a new comment on your post "WELS at Work Opposing Justification by Faith":

Foolish Humann...

sorry could resist the Simpsons quote:
http://www.amazon.com/Simpsons-Aliens-Foolish-Sticker-S-SIM-0105/dp/B001C1GOM4

Wauwatosa Whoa's - Rosetta Stone for UOJ in WELS?

I added this link to writings about Wauwatosa and the Protest'ant split.

I am looking at the Wauwatosa revolution as one reason for UOJ taking over WELS many decades later. The initial claims about Wauwatosa, relayed in a positive way, suggest an anti-confessional Pietism that hid behind an alleged interest in Scripture alone. Some of the statements reveal an arrogance that is often found in mainline apostate theologians (like Braaten) who create their own individual ecumenical theologies. They even say "my theology," as if they own their product and want people to admire it.

The Wauwatosa men came from the Walther-Pieper-Stoeckhardt boot camp at St. Louis. Strange dogma has a pedigree, so it is necessary to look at its paternity.

The core of Wauwatosa is its claim to be Scripture alone, at war with doctrinal formulations and confessions. The language cited below is a give-away: the spirit of ecumenical Pietism.

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Catechesis has left a new comment on your post "Missouri Is Still Selling Their Old Catechism - No...":

WELS readers, learn what this means (from your own Wauwatosa Theologian):

"Surprisingly, in view the importance of doctrinal agreement was in the founding and maintenance of the Synodical Conference, Koehler recognized not only that 'there is not a single truly united external religious communion' in any congregation or synod,” but even that 'there has never really been an external unity of the church.' Yet for
all true believers— regardless of denominational label— 'the inner unity of the spirit in faith
continues.'” Mark Braun, in "The Wauwatosa Gospel" (2002), p 10, quoting Koehler from, “Gesetzlch Wesen unter uns,” 238; emphases in the original.


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Catechesis has left a new comment on your post "Wauwatosa Damage":

Here are choice quotes from Mark Braun's "The Wauwatosa Gospel" re Pieper. First, p. 5:

"...his observations exhibit two well-attested personality traits attributed to him by friend
and foe alike: a flair for the dramatic and an inclination to exaggeration." This quote has a footnote:

"Pieper was purported to have told his seminary classes: 'Don’t think I became a pastor out of piety. I wanted to go to Hollywood.'"

Once a Prussian always a Prussian.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Wauwatosa Damage":

August Pieper, "Dogmatic training perhaps makes one orthodox, but it also easily makes one orthodoxist, intolerant, quarrelsome, hateful, and easily causes division in the church."

Just how tolerant should a Christian be of false doctrines?

To raise the love of men to be equal to or greater than Christ and His Word is wrong. The result: the glory of the (W)ELS will be it's toleration of false doctrine, false practice and the false teachers who promote it.

Granted I've talked to some in the (W)ELS and LCMS who are not intentionally teaching false doctrines, such as UOJ, but when the false doctrine is shown to them by Scripture and the Confessions they defend the false teachings and listen to and promote the human reason of their theologians at the expense of Christ's Word. The Lutheran Synods have made idols out of their clergy, theologians, Synod and synod administrators.

August Pieper as quoted by the (W)ELS in defense of UOJ:
(In) the third volume of the Quartalschrift his unforgettable article. The conclusion reads:
One cannot oppose any doctrine of God’s Word with impunity; this increases sin and guilt, damages consciences and blinds the heart. One error begets another, as in the election controversy the insistence on intuitu fidei soon brought with itself the synergistic doctrine of conversion. But whoever molests the doctrine of justification stabs the gospel in the heart and is on the way of losing entirely Christian doctrine and personal faith and of falling into the arms of heathenism, even if he ever so much emphasizes justification by faith.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Wauwatosa Whoa's - Rosetta Stone for UOJ?":

The Universalism of the Lutheran Synods:

A Final Word

Franz Pieper, along with Georg Stöckhardt, Herman A. Preus, Jacob Aall Ottesen, U.V. Koren, Adolph Hoenecke and others, recognized the greatness of the doctrine as taught by C.F.W. Walther. And it started with the Lutheran doctrine of Justification- Objective and Universal!

"That’s nice" says the world, "but of course you must believe first before you can be justified. You must remember the great Lutheran tenet, ‘justification by faith.’"

No, I believe what Dr. Pieper taught- there is a justification that exists before faith, before believing it, for all. That is called the universal/objective justification.

"Well, surely you would not discount faith in the order of salvation, would you?" says the world.

I would eliminate faith as a requirement that makes justification true. That would be making faith a work of mine. The Bible teaches that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law. Thereby is the teaching of faith upheld for it teaches the object of saving faith, the vicarious satisfaction worked by Christ.

The picture of the Missouri Synod since the death of Franz Pieper leaves a true Lutheran weeping. For when one considers the glorious beauty of the Gospel as it truly is, as it was proclaimed by the fathers of the Missouri Synod (and the Synodical Conference members), it brings a petition to the lips of all who covet their soul’s salvation that the Lord would again grant teachers who would proclaim it as they did.

What remains to be said in this essay is what would be most important to Dr. Pieper. You, dear reader, must know also that though all men have deserved only eternal punishment and damnation as the result of sin, nevertheless, God has accepted the payment made by His own dear Son, Jesus Christ, in his perfect life, suffering and death. And the Father receipted the payment for all the world to know, for on Easter morning He raised His Son from the dead, declaring the whole world to be righteous in Christ. Now the entire world stands pardoned, acquitted of all guilt. This is the Gospel that was commanded to be preached. Now there is nothing we can do, only believe this, that you are already saved. C.F.W. Walther wrote in 1868: "…you often hear pastors preach, 'You are saved if you believe.' What they should be saying is, 'You are saved so that you might believe."

http://www.franzpieper.com/

WELS at Work Opposing Justification by Faith

"Spoiling the Egyptians" is the term Valleskey borrowed to excuse using the gems of Fuller Seminary. The Wisconsin Sect is scandalized by the efficacy of the Word in justification by faith, but not by their seminary president going to Fuller...and loving it.


From: "Pastor Seiltz"
To:
Cc: "ELHS Board" , "Pastor Schewe"
Subject: RE: FW: Letter to ELHS Board and Association

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 20:38:02
 
Brett,
The Evergreen Board of Directors addressed your doctrinal concerns at our last board meeting on October 26th. Our number one priority as a Lutheran High School is teaching and proclaiming the Word of God in its truth and purity. We appreciate your desire in this area as a parent of two of our students.
We studied the doctrines which you cited and determined that the WELS/ELS statements on them are Scripturally correct. A motion was made and passed unanimously. The motion below was excerpted from the official meeting minutes and reads as follows:
MOTION: Having studied the Holy Scriptures and the WELS and ELS statements of faith, including This We Believe and This We Believe, Teach, and Confess, the Evergreen Lutheran High School Board reaffirms its commitment to true Christian doctrine, as expressed in the Holy Scriptures, and affirms that our responses to questions regarding our teachings are answered in light of our agreement with the Holy Scriptures, the Lutheran Confessions, and the doctrinal statements of the WELS and ELS.
MOTION PASSED, unanimously, no abstentions.
Evergreen Lutheran High School is not going to change from teaching what is in the Scriptures, nor will we apologize for it. All students that come to ELHS will receive this Scriptural instruction. We appreciate the fact that your two daughters have not brought your objections up in class or have been detrimental to the teaching of the Scriptures in our classrooms. Pastor Humann, Mr. Steph Rodmyre, and Mr. Greg Thiesfeldt have responded to your concerns with correct Biblical answers. I have attached a file that we used for study in the board meeting. One final note is that we as a board consider this matter completed and final. The resolution that passed is a clear statement. If you wish to continue your dialogue, we recommend that you contact the ELS and WELS directly.
In the name of Christ Jesus,
Signed,
Pastor Nathan Seiltz, Pastor Evergreen Lutheran High School, and Gary Ide, Board Chairman Evergreen Lutheran High School On behalf of the Evergreen Lutheran High School Board of Directors
ATTACHED FILE:
A. Objective justification is universal. Scripture teaches that God has reconciled the world to himself. This includes all people, believers and unbelievers. All, believers and unbelievers, have deserved death and damnation. Jesus came as the substitute for all. He obeyed the law for all. He died in the place of everyone. When Jesus rose, he rose as the substitute for every sinner. By his resurrection God declared sinners, all of them, forgiven. This is the good news Scripture reveals. This is the good news we proclaim to contrite sinners: “God has reconciled you to himself. Your sins are already forgiven. Calvary and the empty tomb are the proof of it.”
B. It is suggested, if not argued, that such an interpretation of Scripture and the teaching of objective justification we defend is something relatively new in Lutheranism. It is true that the terms objective and subjective justification are relatively recent. They are not found in the Confessions. It is also true that most of the time when the Scriptures speak of justification they do so in connection with believing. They speak of subjective justification. Yet the fact remains that terms objective justification and subjective justification do convey thoughts which the Scriptures teach, as all orthodox theologians have confessed.
C. When objective justification is denied, faith becomes a condition of salvation instead of the means through which we receive salvation. When speaking of salvation, we don’t want to turn a person’s attention inward to his faith, but outward to the grace of God. Preaching about faith will not produce faith, but proclaiming God’s love and mercy and forgiveness will produce believing hearts.
D. To justify in the Bible always has the meaning “to declare righteous.” Never do the terms denote a qualitative change in man, a physical or medicinal thing. The change which is meant is not a change in one’s person, but a change in one’s status before God. In the matter of salvation it is God’s pronouncing a sinner righteous—an act which takes place apart from man. God declares sinners righteous not because of anything he foresaw in man, but for the sake of Christ, the sinner’s substitute.
E. A quick look at the terms ought to be sufficient to remind ourselves of the Lutheran doctrine of objective or universal justification–that God at the resurrection of Christ declared sinners justified, universally, excluding none, and objectively, whether they believe it or not.
F. Romans 5:18, 19: “Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” Historically, this reference in Romans is ranked as the principal sedes doctrinae for objective justification. Verse 18 informs us that because of Adam’s sin a verdict of condemnation was pronounced on all men; because of the one act of righteousness by Christ a verdict of acquittal was pronounced on all men. There can be no question that verse 18 teaches universal and therefore objective justification.
G. 2 Corinthians 5:19: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” The passage does not contain the word righteousness, but it ranks as strong support for the doctrine of objective justification because of the manner in which it speaks of the synonymous term reconciliation. In Christ God has reconciled the world to himself. A change has taken place. The change was not in man.Man remained unchanged, by nature sinful, hostile to God. Orthodox theologians for the most part have spoken of the change as a change in man’s status before God. Previously God viewed the world apart from Christ—and it stood condemned. Now God views the world in the light of Christ’s work of redemption and has declared the world righteous, forgiven.
H. There are many other passages of Scripture that support the doctrine of objective justification: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). Any reference that announces that Christ has paid for sin, offered himself as a sacrifice, paid the ransom, shed his blood, finally teaches objective justification. Men’s sins are paid for whether they believe it or not.
I. To illustrate the history of universal and therefore objective justification in Lutheran doctrine we go back to Luther. Anyone who has read Luther’s “Treatise Concerning the Keys” of 1530 can hardly deny that Luther believed in objective justification. The following paragraph sums up Luther’s thoughts quite well: Even he who does not believe that he is free and his sins forgiven shall also learn, in due time, how assuredly his sins were forgiven, even though he did not believe it. St. Paul says in Ro 3(3): “Their faithlessness nullifies the faithfulness of God.” We are not talking here either about people’s belief or disbelief regarding the efficacy of the keys. We realize that few believe. We are speaking of what the keys accomplish and give. He who does not accept what the keys give receives, of course, nothing. But this is not the keys’ fault. Many do not believe the gospel, but this does not mean that the gospel is not true or effective. A king gives you a castle. If you do not accept it, then it is not the king’s fault, nor is he guilty of a lie. But you have deceived yourself and the fault is yours. The king certainly gave it. LW 40 363-369
J. The Confessions also speak frequently of universal and therefore objective justification: 1) But the Gospel is properly such a doctrine as teaches what man who has not observed the Law, and therefore is condemned by it, it to believe, namely, that Christ has expiated and made satisfaction for all sins, and has obtained and acquired for him, without any merit of his, forgiveness of sins, righteousness that avails before God, and eternal life. Formula of Concord V, 4; Trig., p 801 2) (God in His purpose and counsel ordained:) That the human race is truly redeemed and reconciled with God through Christ, who, by His faultless obedience, suffering, and death, has merited for us the righteousness which avails before God, and eternal life. Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration XI, 15, Trig., p 1069
K. While the election controversy was in its second stage in the first years of the 20th Century, a somewhat related controversy over objective justification erupted. This development prompted August Pieper to write for the third volume of the Quartalschrift his unforgettable article. The conclusion reads: One cannot oppose any doctrine of God’s Word with impunity; this increases sin and guilt, damages consciences and blinds the heart. One error begets another, as in the election controversy the insistence on intuitu fidei soon brought with itself the synergistic doctrine of conversion. But whoever molests the doctrine of justification stabs the gospel in the heart and is on the way of losing entirely Christian doctrine and personal faith and of falling into the arms of heathenism, even if he ever so much emphasizes justification by faith.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "WELS at Work Opposing Justification by Faith":

(W)ELS Pastor James Humann openly exposes the essence of (W)ELS UOJ in this reply to me:

Brett,
This is the last correspondence from me to you on this subject. It is my impression that you are trying to convince me that what I and others are teaching about OJ is wrong and that you yourself are not willing to be taught the truth. What I teach is the truth and I'm telling you that it is the truth. Evergreen is a WELS/ELS school and what is taught in the religion department is taught accordingly. Your concerns are much bigger than Evergreen or Holy Trinity. You stated that the ELS/WELS and LCMS are wrong on the doctrine of OJ. You should address your remarks to the leaders of those synods, the seminary president, the District President, the head of the religion department at MLC. The error you espouse is an old heresy going back to the Garden of Eden and Satan's question, "Did God really say?" It goes back to the time of the Reformation and the Ohio and Iowa Synods. It's interesting that you didn't mention ELCA. Do they have it right in your opinion? Also, just because the Lutheran Confessions do not say a lot about OJ doesn't mean it's not true. The controversy at the time was about salvation by grace alone, by faith alone, by Scripture alone, which would naturally bring the focus on subjective justification.

I'd encourage you to look at Romans 3:23-24, Romans 5:9-11, Romans 5:18-19, Romans 4:25, II Corinthians 5:19. I'd recommend that you read pages 22-60 in "Our Great Heritage,"
Volume 3. I'd like to leave you with just a couple of quotes from the above referenced pages: "Martin Luther once said that those who do not believe God's message of forgiveness will someday find out how surely their sins were forgiven even though they did not believe it." (Luther's Works 40:366f)

"God forever remains the God who punishes all sin, and at the same time he is forever the God who forgives every sin. And only the person who by God's grace has in the vicarious
atonement of Christ found a way to believe both truths worships the God of the Bible." (p.53)

"But, sad to say, there are some Lutherans who want to be conservative and orthodox and yet find it very difficult to say with equal fervor and vigor that God has forgiven the sins of all men in Christ." (p.53)

"And yet many Lutherans still labor under the delusion that God does not forgive us unless we believe. Instead of seeing faith as nothing more than the spiritual hand with which we make the forgiveness of God our own, they see it as a reason why God forgives us. They believe that Christ has indeed provided forgiveness for all men, that God is willing to forgive them, but before he really forgives he first of all demands that we should be sorry for our sins and that we should have faith. Just have faith they say, and then God will forgive you. All the right words are there. The only thing wrong is that the words are in the wrong order. God does not forgive us IF we have faith. He has forgiven us long ago when he raised his Son from the
dead." (p. 59)

Finally, "If forgiveness were dependent on faith in the sense that God does not forgive until we believe, we would always have to be sure that we are believers before we would be sure that we are forgiven." (p.60)

In your last comment to Mr. Rodmyre you said, "God says that those who pervert the gospel of Christ by preaching another gospel are accursed. Objective Justification is another gospel."
God will judge who is preaching another gospel!

In Christ, on whose account God has justified, declared righteous, or acquitted, the whole world of sinners,
Pastor James Humann

Who's Leaving ELCA - One Bishop Election Away from Radical Changes

Everything is explained in this bit of logic.


Pastor G. Erndner, ALPB Forum Online
To make things easier, below is a list sorted by percentage of congregations that left. The first batch are those with 1% or fewer. The last batch are those with 10% or higher.

7A New Jersey Synod 0 cong. out of 186 cong., or 0.0% and 0 Bap. mem. out of 66,770 mem., or 0.0%
7B New England Synod 0 cong. out of 186 cong., or 0.0% and 0 Bap. mem. out of 64,031 mem., or 0.0%
7G Slovak Zion Synod 0 cong. out of 26 cong., or 0.0% and 0 Bap. mem. out of 4,466 mem., or 0.0%
8G Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod 0 cong. out of 80 cong., or 0.0% and 0 Bap. mem. out of 34,291 mem., or 0.0%
9F Caribbean Synod 0 cong. out of 34 cong., or 0.0% and 0 Bap. mem. out of 5,052 mem., or 0.0%
7E Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod 1 cong. out of 290 cong., or 0.3% and 119 Bap. mem. out of 147,481 mem., or 0.1%
8E Upper Susquehanna Synod 1 cong. out of 137 cong., or 0.7% and 444 Bap. mem. out of 39,831 mem., or 1.1%
5A Metropolitan Chicago Synod 2 cong. out of 205 cong., or 1.0% and 3,520 Bap. mem. out of 104,754 mem., or 3.4%

2C Pacifica Synod 13 cong. out of 128 cong., or 10.2% and 12,255 Bap. mem. out of 50,530 mem., or 24.3%
5I East-Central Synod of Wisconsin 15 cong. out of 141 cong., or 10.6% and 6,255 Bap. mem. out of 95,709 mem., or 6.5%
5F Northeastern Iowa Synod 20 cong. out of 181 cong., or 11.0% and 8,392 Bap. mem. out of 88,273 mem., or 9.5%
5E Western Iowa Synod 21 cong. out of 165 cong., or 12.7% and 7,766 Bap. mem. out of 66,769 mem., or 11.6%
1F Montana Synod 19 cong. out of 146 cong., or 13.0% and 6,084 Bap. mem. out of 49,302 mem., or 12.3%
9B North Carolina Synod 34 cong. out of 236 cong., or 14.4% and 14,592 Bap. mem. out of 81,705 mem., or 17.9%
4E Southwestern Texas Synod 28 cong. out of 170 cong., or 16.5% and 15,071 Bap. mem. out of 63,805 mem., or 23.6%

I'd also note that every synod in the ELCA is only one election of a new bishop away from becoming radically different from what it currently is. And of course, that works both ways.

Also, the database includes a category for "1st vote pending". Any analysis I do of congregations that "have left or are in the process of leaving" include those with announced 1st votes pending, as well as "failed/rescheduled". Bethel Lutheran in Parkersburg, Iowa is noted as such in the database.

Wauwatosa Damage

Catechesis has left a new comment on your post "Missouri Is Still Selling Their Old Catechism - No...":

The so-called Wauwatosa Theology, sounds innocent enough, but did it lead to (or reinforce) UOJ? Did it screw up WELS on the doctrine of the Office of the Holy Ministry? Did it turn WELS into a sect because it "rediscovered" the "Unit Concept" of church fellowship?:

"We renounce this authority-theology anew. It causes so much damage to the church. It is unfaithfulness to the Lord; slavery to men; it brings errors with it. But it also makes the mind narrow and the heart small. . . . Dogmatic training perhaps makes one orthodox, but it also easily makes one orthodoxist, intolerant, quarrelsome, hateful, and easily causes division in the church.
. .
Scripture is at once narrow and broad. The study of it makes the heart narrow to actual false doctrine and heresies, but broad toward various human expressions and presentations. It does not accuse of false doctrine unnecessarily; it teaches us to bear and suffer in love the mistakes of the weak. It keeps the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Therefore we want to entirely do away with this dogmatic authority-theology, and to sink ourselves ever deeper into Scripture and to promote it above all else. We know that in doing so we will best serve the church.”

- August Pieper (1913), Quoted by Mark Braun in The Wauwatosa Gospel (2002). p 25.
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August Pieper Hagiography

by Aaron Voss

August Otto Wilhelm Pieper was born on September 27, 1857, in Carwitz, Pomerania, as the second youngest son to August Berhnhard Pieper and his wife Bertha. The pedigree of this great Wisconsin synod pastor, professor, and theologian was not that of a pastor soldiering for the gospel, but rather that of a soldier in the Prussian army. His father followed a line of Piepers and served in the Prussian army. August’s father eventually reached the rank of corporal, but after a year in this position, he decided the private life better suited him. Pieper’s father was honorably discharged, and he transitioned from one leadership role to another. He became mayor of Carwitz and was highly respected as a peaceable man. He was by all accounts a good ruler, especially because he supported Frederick William III’s Prussian Union. His unionist support looked good on his résumé but could have been detrimental to the history of our beloved Synod.

But God is the God of history. Enter August’s mother, Bertha. While his father was consumed with mayoral duties, Bertha looked over the secular and sacred education of her children. Bertha was raised from the age of three by her uncle, a member of the confessional Pomeranian Separation. She held true to her confessional Lutheran faith throughout her life and imparted these teachings upon her children. Under the steady, loving guide of Bertha, August and his brothers became well-educated and their visible talents spoke well of both their mother and father.

Pieper’s father died in 1869, and a year later Bertha took the four younger sons, including August, over to America. The Pieper family settled in Watertown, Wisconsin, near the Rock River bridge because of the proximity to Northwestern College. The college provided the children with the ministerial education that Bertha so highly valued and gave Bertha employment as the college’s stewardess. Bertha still had a hand in the children’s education and wanted them to be trained for ministerial service. August was no exception.
August graduated from Northwestern in 1876 and enrolled the following school year at the Missouri Synod’s Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. This Missouri seminary was a perfect fit for August. August was an exceptionally gifted student, especially in foreign languages such as Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. There in St. Louis, Dr. C.F.W. Walther could further cultivate Pieper’s God-given gifts, and August could be closer to his older brother Franz who taught as a professor at the seminary. Franz also was a gifted student and three years after his graduation from St. Louis, he took a call to teach at Concordia Seminary so that he could be groomed as Walther’s hand-picked successor.

Pieper’s time at the seminary was not without its challenges, however. A self-described lover of baseball, August was a pitcher and enjoyed playing games with schoolmates. After one game in the sweltering heat and humidity of St. Louis, August and company had to resort to rain water to try and rehydrate themselves. But instead of replenishing electrolytes, August contracted a serious case of typhoid fever. He was bed-ridden for some time in a room at the seminary and was concerned that his deliriousness would make him unfit for the public ministry. But God eventually restored his sound health and sound mind. August proved he was fully recovered when his final examination for a Walther class was graded in the top two of his class. Walther further showed confidence in August’s skills as a student when he, at brother Franz’s suggestion, asked August to proofread the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew quotes in Walther’s Dogmatics. Pieper, with classic humor, later wrote in reminiscence that, “The Missourians therefore can pride themselves with the fact that they have Walther’s Dogmatics proofread by a Wisconsin Synod man!”
And August Pieper was a Wisconsin Synod man throughout his ministry. He graduated from Concordia in 1879 and took a Wisconsin Synod call to Immanuel Congregation in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, where he served until 1885. Walther had once asked Pieper if he would serve the Lord as a pastor in the Missouri Synod, but Pieper respectfully replied that he felt he was obligated to repay the Wisconsin Synod for the Christian upbringing he received after coming to America. From Kewaunee Pieper accepted a call to shepherd St. Paul’s Congregation in Menominee, Wisconsin. During 1890, however, Pieper again was afflicted with health troubles. He was forced to take some months off from the ministry and move to Texas so that the drier climate could restore his ailing throat back to health.

Shortly after returning from the South, Pieper accepted another call in 1891, this time to St. Marcus in Milwaukee. He served God’s people there for twelve years before he accepted his final call, to be a professor of isagogics and Old Testament exegesis at the Wisconsin Synod’s seminary in Wauwatosa, which later moved to Mequon. His forty-one years at the seminary saw him serve as president of the school from 1930-1937 and prepare nearly five hundred students for the pastoral ministry. August Pieper retired from the public ministry of the gospel in 1943 after sixty-four years of faithful service to his Lord and Savior.

Part of Professor Pieper’s ministry to his lay members, students, and fellow pastors was his writing. He wrote ten essays either for synod or district conventions. He helped found Theologische Quartalschrift in 1904 and over one hundred of his articles have filled its pages. In one article entitled “The Proper Separation of Law and Gospel” Pieper sets forth the basic principles for proper division, a topic about which he undoubtedly learned much when he studied under Walther. Pieper’s principal work of writing, however, is found in Isaiah II. This book focuses on the rich gospel message that is preached in the latter half of Isaiah, a topic that Pieper held so dear.

Professor August Pieper’s ministry was an extremely long one but marked with great consistency. Pieper was always on fire for the sweet message of free and full forgiveness found in the gospel. Above all Pieper looked first to understand salvation for his personal edification and so he could then clearly help others understand it. His theology was crystal clear, and his students, congregations, fellow pastors, and readers were always left with the impression of the gospel. He kept his enormous academic gifts captive to Christ and never let his reason get in the way of the pure Word. As strong as his intelligence was, so was his will. The professor was very self-controlled and always found a way to force himself to do numerous exhausting tasks. Pieper especially applied this will and discipline to stand up for what he was convinced was right, above all that Jesus Christ is the salvation for the entire world.

As intense and intelligent as Professor Pieper was, he was not distant from those around him. His students and colleagues spoke dearly of him, and it was clear that he had a good rapport with them. Before the very first period of every isagogics course, the professor would quietly peak only his head around the door into the filled classroom and then quickly pull it back. He would let suspense build for a minute or so, fully enter the room, and say at the front of the classroom, “That’s Isagogics: just a peak.” Pieper not only made his students laugh but also made them motivated for the ministry. He was famous for sometimes dropping the assigned topic for an entire period and create a Stimmung, an “atmosphere,” for the gospel ministry. His students would leave the hour more enthusiastic and motivated for gospel ministry. One former student summed it up: “Pips gave us the Geist.”

God blessed August Pieper’s personal life with his marriage in 1881 to Emma Koenig, with whom the Lord further blessed Pieper with five daughters, two sons, twenty-five grandchildren, and eighteen great-grandchildren. Professor Pieper’s wife Emma preceded him in death when she fell asleep in 1929 before God called him to his eternal home on December 23, 1946. The Wisconsin Synod owes her gracious God tremendous thanks for August Pieper’s extensive ministry. In him we have a model pastor and Christian who always inspired zeal for the gospel and its ministry. His reminder is as important now as it was during his life: “We can constantly grow in the work of the Lord, always become more.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brenner, John. "In Memoriam." Quartalschrift: Theological Quarterly. 44.2 (April 1947): 81.
Lehninger, Max. "Gemeinden: Professor August Pieper." Evangelical-Lutherisches Gemeinde-Blatt. 83.2 (January 25, 1948): 8-9.
Pieper, August. "Reminiscences from Professor August Pieper." WELS Historical Institute Journal. 1.2 (Fall 1983): 48-56.
Westerhaus, Martin O. “The Wauwatosa Theology: The Men and Their Message.” The Wauwatosa Theology, Volume I. Ed. Curtis A. Jahn. Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Publishing House, 1997. 13-98.

Why Join for the Non-Gospel?

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Glende - It's Easier To Ask Forgiveness Than Permi...":

I saw how Glende uses a quote from Creating the Future organization. This is another New Age anti Christian group that is promoting the religious idea that all men are gods and that humanity can reach it's greatest potential if we all unit our powers. Here's the lead quote from their website:

At Creating the Future, our vision is a world that functions from humanity’s highest potential – a world that is healthy, vibrant, compassionate, resilient and at peace.

Each and every one of us is creating the future, with everything we do, whether we do so consciously or not.

The future does not have to resemble the past.

We can create the future we want.

Join us to learn and grow together, as we reach for our collective potential to create healthy, vibrant communities in a healthy, vibrant world.

The (W)ELS is teaching their people these New Age antichristian religious doctrines. Others being taught are Taize, Contemplative Prayer (Centering Prayer), and the false gospel of Universal Reconciliation or Universal Objective Justification.