Happy Birthday, Dr. John Warwick Montgomery. American Lutheranism Went To Pot When You Moved To Europe

Dr. Montgomery is licensed to practice law
in England, Wales, France,
California, DC, and the US Supreme Court.

John Warwick Montgomery earned doctorates in theology at the University of Chicago and at Strausberg. He has earned 10 degrees in all. His academic progress seemed to accelerate as he moved along. He graduated from Hamma Divinity, LCA, and taught at Waterloo Lutheran University, where I went to seminary. I believe he was the professor at WLU who nailed a famous speaker to the floor by a series of questions that led the poor Leftist to admit the opposite of what he had just tried to teach. I was awed by that and later concluded it could only have been Montgomery.

He worked with Walter Martin, a noted defender of the Christian faith. At some point he read the works of Lutheran orthodoxy and left the LCA. I know he investigated joining the Little Sect on the Prairie, but they are notoriously allergic to earned degrees and academic merit.

Montgomery has published more books than an entire faculty and practiced law in defense of the rights of Christians. My wife and I had lunch with him at the Chicago Inerrancy Conference, where we were leaving the LCA. It seems like yesterday.

(One LCMS pastor at that conference, who knew Al Barry as a district president, said, "Barry will do nothing about doctrine as the Synod President, because he has done nothing here, even when the facts were put before him.")

Montgomery meddled with my life much earlier than the Chicago Inerrancy Conference, which was probably about 1987. I was in Sturgis, Michigan, inheriting an entire library of books from a Missouri pastor who suddenly left the ministry. The books were being tossed away, so a member brought them to me - cartons and cartons of them. I gave many away to various people, including my dissertation advisor at Notre Dame, John Howard Yoder.

One book was a two-volume work, edited by Montgomery,  about the decline of the Lutheran Church. One of the contributors was an LCA missionary by the name of Faust. We knew his son at Augustana, and Pastor Faust was related to my father's best friend, aka Snortin' Norton, whose son was also an Augustana classmate. There are no degrees of separation in the Lutheran Church.

The Faust essay really struck home, because that was a man I knew, someone who preached at Salem in Moline, the congregation where I was confirmed. I read the book, which confirmed my suspicions about the departure of the LCA from the Biblical foundations of the Christian faith.

That thrown-away book began my movement out of the LCA, where only one side was ever presented.

But there is another connection besides. I included Montgomery on my mailing list for Martin Chemnitz Press, long ago. He was kind enough to order all my books. I said free shipping with large orders, and he availed himself of that discount. I recall the note on his order.

American Lutherans did not take advantage of Montgomery's vast learning. He said on his Facebook page:

At the same time, in the States, I find that a fair number of churchy Protestants, including evangelicals, think that salvation is a matter of leading the right kind of life, being sanctified, manifesting spiritual gifts--rather than relying on the sufficient sacrifice of Our Lord on the Cross . . . (To clarify, we live in the French Alsace, where Lutheranism is predominant.)
I went back to check on that page and saw that Moline classmate Michael Bauman, Hillsdale College, also wished John a happy birthday. Bauman is also involved in apologetics.

Montgomery is a prime example of a man who has dedicated his life to arguing the truth, no matter what.

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narrow-minded has left a new comment on your post "Happy Birthday, Dr. John Warwick Montgomery. Ameri...":

The pastor in Barry's district was certainly correct. Although he talked "confessional" and was correct on the social issues, Barry allowed CG and the Charismatic movements in the LCMS.

Steadfast UOJers, Walther Quest, and the rest of self-proclaimed "confessionals" are now happy because they once again have their guy on the SP Throne. This just goes to show that political power is more important than being truly Lutheran. I predicted two years ago that Mustachio Matt would be a repeat of Barry.

Instead of schmoozing with and aping the Methobapticostals under Kieschnick, the LCMS will now favor schmoozing with Rome/Constantinople. Be it "follow the bouncing ball on the screen" praise bands, or bells and smells, it doesn't matter as long as we're ABL (Anything but Lutheran).

Are Babtists ashamed of being Baptist? Are Methodists ashamed of being Methodist? The ECUSA, despite their imminent demise, is proud to be ECUSA. Rome and Constantinople don't apologize much. Why does the "Lutheran" SynCon seemed to be ashamed of being Lutheran?

Given the history and the establishment of the SynCon, I guess I shouldn't be shocked. Pietism is truly our default religion.

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GJ - Given the enrollment of SynCon leaders, the promotion of those graduates from heretical seminaries, and the adoption of their idiotic ideas, it is difficult to imagine how the LCMS, WELS, or ELS could criticize anyone about anything.

When the LutherQuest (sic) bunch was jumping on me for synodical memberships, I pointed out that their hero, Al Barry, started in a church basement seminary in the Twin Cities, went to Bethany Seminary in Mankato, vicared in WELS, and became LCMS. However, those facts never emerge in his Concordia Historical Institute bio.

Liars  do not give up their lying habits.