If I may, I wish to add what I view as the arrogance of C F W Walther when it came to the doctrine of election. Apparently his opponents kept on quoting to him the writings of the BoC writers. Here is what he had to say...
The principal means by which our opponents endeavor to support their doctrine, consists in continually quoting passages from the private writings of the fathers of our Church, published subsequent to the _Formula of Concord_. But whenever a controversy arises concerning the question, whether a doctrine is Lutheran, we must not ask: "What does this or that 'father' of the Lutheran Church teach in his private writings?" for he also may have fallen into error;
Is it likely the BoC writers erred on the topic of election as Walther supposed? Is that the only possibility?
Granted the BoC fathers were not fallible and they could have been inconsistent with themselves, but is that likely they deviated from what they wrote?
What about the possibility that it was Walther himself who misunderstood the teaching of the BoC when it came to election?
Which possibility do you test first, I say test first Walther before you test the BoC Fathers.
This is like saying the framers of the US Constitution should not be consulted when you want to understand what they meant as they might have been confused in their writings.
Is the BoC an art work that you can extrude it from those who framed it?
That is the height of folly.
LPC
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| After worshiping at the shrine of Walther, many LCMS pastors now worship at Marian shrines. They wait, like Paul McCain, for their miraculous lactation experience. |
GJ - Dr. Cruz has a perfect example of SynCon thinking today -
"Start with our guys and make that the gold standard of orthodoxy, no matter how much it deviates from the Confessions and the Scriptures. Ignore the Book of Concord and its authors, then wait for our new porno-paraphrase of the Bible to be ratified by a supine synod membership."
Pope Walther upgraded that by saying, "Start with me and judge all others by what I just wrote." His fake modesty is a fitting reflection of his fake congregationalism.
