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| http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schmid/theology.pdf |
I ordered a printed copy of Schmid from Alibris, even though I have the entire contents on this blog.
You can order Knapp, the Halle University professor who trained Bishop Martin Stephan, STD, in UOJ. My copy dates back to a few years before the syphilitic bishop landed his troops on the shores of New Orleans.
Walther learned his UOJ from Bishop Stephan, his second cell group leader. Walther, who kidnapped more people than Bruno Richard Hauptmann, taught that every single person in the world was forgiven when Christ rose from the dead. The Easter absolution is pure Rambach Pietism, as Jay Webber has conceded.
Melanchthon and the Concordists rejected the notion of faith as a virtue. They never taught that. Who did?
Arminians and Calvinists
The Arminians argued faith as a decision, as a virtue - which the Calvinists denied. The UOJ fanatics, in arguing against justification by faith, use a Calvinist argument. UOJ Enthusiasts have no concept of faith created by the Holy Spirit at work in the Word, because they have never comprehended the Means of Grace, the efficacy of the Word.
Missourians and WELSians call justification by faith Calvinism or Intuitu Fidei (in view of faith, faith as a virtue - Arminianism). Their doctrinal knowledge and discernment is few fries short of a Happy Meal.
Like Hobos on a Hotdog
Why do the Stormtroopers jump on Heinrich Schmid like hobos on a hotdog? The ignorant like to poison the well in advance. "Oh no - you are not going to quote Schmid. He is totally Intuitu Fidei. My dog notes say so."
Schmid was one of those best sellers among the old WELS pastors and also the old ALC pastors. I often saw copies at Trinity Seminary sales in Columbus, when the geezers left their orthodox libraries to the new mode ELCA seminarians. How Lenski and Leupold would have cringed to see their school defiled.
The Content of Schmid
I hate to admit that Schmid created the first Megatron (my database of 3,000 quotations). He gathered orthodox Luther quotations and organized them by category.
But Schmid took his volumes of Lutheran orthodoxy and manually copied and organized them. The original Oxford English Dictionary was created the same laborious way. No wonder the OED has grown like kudzu vine ever since.
The Great Unknown
Schmid does this for the pastor, professor, and layman - he opens up those lost volumes of orthodox Lutheran thought, with each quotation naming the author. Not until James Heiser got Repristination Press going did anyone publish so much of those lost volumes.
Like the Large Catechism of Luther, Schmid opens up the consistent Biblical teaching of the efficacy of the Word, the Means of Grace, justification by faith, and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
Here is a text version of the entire book.
Below is a quotation from Schmid:
AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 55 [5] GRH. (I, 9): "Those who are within the Church do not in quire about the authority of Scripture, for this is their starting- point. How can they be true disciples of Christ if they pretend to call in question the doctrine of Christ ? How can they be true members of the Church if they are in doubt concerning the founda tion of the Church ? How can they wish to prove that to them selves which they always employ to prove other things? How can they doubt concerning that whose efficacy they have experi enced in their own hearts? The Holy Spirit testifies in their hearts that the Spirit is truth, i. e., that the doctrine derived from the Holy Spirit is absolute truth. [6] GRH. therefore very properly observes, that the doctrine of the authority of Scripture is no article of faith, but rather the fountain-head of the articles of faith. (I, 11): "The doctrine concerning the Canon is, properly speaking, not an article of faith, since Moses, the prophets, evangelists, and apostles did not fabri cate in their writings a new article of faith superadded to the former, which they taught orally." [7] GRH. (II, 37): "The first (testimony) is the internal wit ness of the Holy Spirit, who, as He bears witness to the spirit of believers that they are the sons of God, Rom. 8 : 16, so, also, efficaciously convinces them, that in the Scriptures the voice of their Heavenly Father is contained; and is the only fit and authentic witness. To this testimony belongs the lively sense of the godly in daily prayer and in the exercises of penitence and faith, the grace of consoling and strengthening the mind against all kinds of adversities, temptations, persecutions, etc., etc., which the godly daily experience in reading and meditating upon Scripture." QUEN. (I, 97): "The ultimate reason by and through which we are led to believe with a divine and unshaken faith that God s Word is God s Word, is the intrinsic power and efficacy of that Word itself, and the testimony and seal of the Holy Spirit, speak ing in and through Scripture. Because the bestowment of faith, not only that by which we believe in the articles, but even that by which we believe in the Scriptures, that exhibit and propose the articles, is a work that emanates from the Holy Spirit, or the Supreme Cause." HOLL. (116): " By the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit, is here understood the supernatural act of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, attentively read or heard (His own divine power being communicated to the Holy Scriptures), moving, opening, illuminating the heart of man, and inciting it to obedience...Giant Volumes Condensed
MDivs like to toss around terms while showing no knowledge of Biblical or doctrinal study. Introductory courses--where the professors have to pass the sons of synod politicians--are not enough to justify claims of being an expert.
Many would say that a PhD is just the beginning of a lifetime of theological study. How much more study is needed for an MDiv offered by political hacks, selected for their loyalty to UOJ and Fuller Seminary?
Not Schmid, But Fuller Students Like Olson, Valleskey, Bivens
Worst of all, Lutherans are expected to pay homage to functionaries, who utterly reject Lutheran doctrine, based on the recently printed essays of pastors chosen to repeat the same recent palaver.
WELSians should find it fascinating that the sect has used its abusive nature to replace everything from the past with Left-wing Fuller propaganda (while lying about it).
All it takes with totalitarians is to change a few dictators and the sheep will follow them. A discussion with WELS leaders is no different from the Protest'ant days, when it meant "Shut up and listen to me telling you off." I have seen it in person many times, and I have witnessed the experts run away like little girls.
Intuitu Fidei Smokescreen
I am borrowing this concept from a researcher. Walther seems to have abused the article on election to create a nifty smokescreen for his absurd dogma. He could not tackle the Book of Concord directly on justification by faith, where his position was obliterated long before he was born.
Instead, Walther tried to make a case for election for no reason (since he was God's counselor). That was how Walther took the Holy Spirit, the efficacy of the Word, and faith out of the order of salvation.
Like all Enthusiasts, to paraphrase Luther, Walther did not find the Word of God efficacious, but thought his own words were. And he filled many volumes with his words. His qualifications? He graduated from a rationalistic university and he subordinated himself to two Pietistic cell group leaders. The Concordists would have laughed him out of the room. He was not qualified to be a theologian or a teacher, but he forced his views on many. It took his disciple F. Pieper to canonize UOJ in the Brief Statement of 1932. After that time, conservatives agree, the LCMS tanked.
We should not inquire about the work of God, but Walther knew better. Shoving Romans aside, as he did with justification by faith, Walther taught an election of his own invention, to get rid of faith. Even the worst ninnies of the Intuitu Fidei guardians admit that the original statement was entirely correct. Now the Latin slogan is simply tossed at anyone who teaches justification by faith - and at Schmid for quoting the orthodox Lutherans instead of the Great
