Walther was not a Lutheran slightly tainted by Stephan's Pietism (see below). Walther was a Pietist with a four-year degree in rationalism.
The state church and the educational system were both controlled by Rationalists. Those who still believed in the Scriptures were called Pietists and Mystics, despised by the state church leaders.
The theological students gravitated toward Pietism as a remedy for the rationalism being taught in their four-year degrees. Many believers did not get parish calls because they were Pietists. Like Paul McCain, Walther served a parish only two years before becoming a bigshot as a bishop's enforcer.
Walther and his circle of close friends formed around one Pietistic leader (Johann Gottlieb Kuehn) and attended cell group meetings led by another Pietist. Halle was the center of Pietism in Europe, and Martin Stephan studied there. The author of Zion on the Mississippi called that leader Candidate Kuehn because the man was still waiting for a call.
When Kuehn, the first Pietistic leader of the Walther circle, received a call, moved away and died, the group attached themselves to Martin Stephan, a Pietist known for his cell group ministry.
One of Walther's friends married the Kuehn widow. When Walther's brother died in America, Ottomar Fuerbringer married the widow and sired Ludwig Fuerbringer, later at St. Lorenz in Frankenmuth and Concordia in St. Louis.
I wonder what Ludwig would have thought about a CPH blogger featuring the Miraculous Lactation of the Blessed Virgin Mother into the mouth of St. Bernard?
Bishop Martin Stephan organized the large-scale escape to America that led to his sect becoming the Missouri Synod, even though Loehe started the synod and invited the Perryville cult to join. They did, but Walther hated Loehe out of the organization, because Loehe was unqualified to be a leader - he had never kidnapped anyone.
Stephan's key leaders were the clergy. They were all part of his Pietistic cell group ministry, and they submitted to his authority in all matters. No one was allowed to dissent from Stephan.
Stephan's female groupies were well known to everyone, including the police. He took walks with young single women late at night, installed one in his home (twice), and lived with his main mistress at the spa when he was being treated for syphilis.
Stephan left his dying family in Dresden when he shipped over to America, taking only his oldest son and his main mistress, Louis Guenther. Once in St. Louis he attracted unwanted attention for his swarm of ladies at the episcopal residence. That included Walther's kidnapped niece.
The outbreak of syphilis among the young single women was the motivating factor in the mob that Walther organized to threaten Stephan's life (a felony), rob the bishop of his money and books (another felony), and kidnap him (another felony). Walther's followers used a weapon (another felony) to force Stephan's passage across the flood-swollen Mississippi, probably on a steamer (not a rowboat).
Adultery was no more a scandal for Stephan at that time than it is among the SynConference clergy today. Zion on the Mississipi makes that clear. The new Stephan book only clarifies some details.
Imagining that all sins were erased 2000 years ago would explain (but not excuse) Walther's actions. He did NOT want the early history of the Missouri sect told, and it has been kept a secret by the guardians of the cult.
It is now popular in WELS to say, "I was saved 2000 years ago."
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Pastor emeritus
Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "LMCS
Pietism Explains LCMS UOJ Pietism":
Ichabod -
I believe that a primary reason for modern day Lutherans retaining the "universal objective justification" (erroneous anti-Biblical) teaching, is that this teaching is (conveniently) utilized as a "cover" for them.
Walther's American Lutheranism (as you point out in your mini commentary) grew out of Pietism. Waltherians and present day Lutheran McCaininites, not wanting to be looked upon as Antinominan, (thus) lovingly embrace their version of the perversion of Christ's Atonement, making it out as a be all and an end all, thereby insulting the Holy Spirit and His work of personal faith in the believer. Hence, their obvious exclusion of Scripture's and Luther's conglomerate teaching of grace through faith - that a human soul is justified by faith alone as the Great Reformer would, again and again explain it!
Nathan M. Bickel
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
Ichabod -
I believe that a primary reason for modern day Lutherans retaining the "universal objective justification" (erroneous anti-Biblical) teaching, is that this teaching is (conveniently) utilized as a "cover" for them.
Walther's American Lutheranism (as you point out in your mini commentary) grew out of Pietism. Waltherians and present day Lutheran McCaininites, not wanting to be looked upon as Antinominan, (thus) lovingly embrace their version of the perversion of Christ's Atonement, making it out as a be all and an end all, thereby insulting the Holy Spirit and His work of personal faith in the believer. Hence, their obvious exclusion of Scripture's and Luther's conglomerate teaching of grace through faith - that a human soul is justified by faith alone as the Great Reformer would, again and again explain it!
Nathan M. Bickel
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
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GJ - That is a good point. Faith is not the enemy of grace - it is the product of grace conveyed to us exclusively in the Means of Grace. Exclusively. That cannot be said enough - exclusively in the Means of Grace.
Why do clown shows and coffee bars predominate in the SynConference today? They do not trust in the exclusive work of the Holy Spirit in the Means of Grace, Word and Sacraments, so they resort to tricks, gimmicks, and sugar-coating the message.
