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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Gossip Site? - Ichabod Is a Doctrinal Discussion S...":
The UOJ people are prone to accuse the JBFA people of gossip because they (the UOJ people) are the ones being scrutinized and called to account for their public anti-Scriptural and anti-Luther teaching.
Nathan M. Bickel
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Gossip Site? - Ichabod Is a Doctrinal Discussion S...":
The antinomian UOJers have no limits on what they say against justification by faith proponents. In Walther's day they said that the Norwegian Professor Schmidt was pro-UOJ until he didn't receive a professorship in St. Louis. What really has the ring of truth is that Professor Schmidt did his homework and became convinced the Walther was wrong on UOJ. Anyway, there's nothing wrong in pointing out UOJers' antinomian ways, though UOJers may call it pure gossip.
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GJ - Servant of the Word, a gushing hagiography of Walther, allows that CFW made a face when Schmidt was suggested for the post. The statement was more like, "He didn't but even if he did..."
That sounds like Wayne Mueller. There is no Church Growth in WELS, but if there is, it is done in harmony with the Confessions.
In WELS, "confession" has an entirely different meaning, of course. It always goes with a plea bargain and lighter sentence.
This is my theory - take it as an opinion. Walther was jealous of the abundant talents of Schmidt and determined not to allow Stephan's UOJ from Halle to be displaced by justification by faith.
The state district elections were bypassed for a direct synod election that Walther could control. Fuerbring complained about that, and Ludwig was not one to complain about Missouri or his uncle Ferdy.
Notice that the refutation of Schmidt depends on an ad hominem argument: "Schmidt did not get elected to the seminary post, so he became an opponent. That was the real election controversy." This canard is repeated endlessly among the SynCons. Why pit justification without faith against justification by faith when a personal attack is so much easier.
Likewise, Walther presents many Luther quotations in his little election book as referring to him, ostensibly the American Luther fighting for the truth in a wilderness of Lutheran false doctrine.
