The Satis Est Article of the Augsburg Confession and Variations in False Doctrine

I have been discussing doctrine with one reader, which led me back to the Four Questions. Professors of Lutheran Doctrine 101 will tell their students - "One side thought those questions were open questions. Now they are ELCA. Our side thought they were not. Now we are in bed with ELCA." They would never admit being in bed with ELCA, though there is definitely a feeling of flat tires in the old Walther cult. The blood-lust is gone. Instead of chopping heads off when Lutheran doctrine is mentioned, they shrug it off and discuss Walther on the sun's orbit or the correct liturgical colors to use.

The never-will-be-an-engineer side of me thought, "There must be a meter to gauge these matters, because picking or rejecting various options is not working."

Suddenly, a light went on. Why are WELS and Missouri pastors so comfortable with the Fuller Seminary professors?

The correct meter is the Pietism to Book of Concord meter, which is much broader than blaming Spener Enthusiasm and the founding of Halle University.

We got to know a number of wonderful Mennonites from living in Canada. Some went to the seminary and we became friends with others through CPE (pastoral counseling). A significant part of the Mennonite tradition is shunning. The extreme version includes never talking to and never doing business with the excluded one. Reasons for shunning vary on which branch the members are in. Some are extremely strict - others are easily confused with liberal Protestants.

Babtists shun with a vengeance. They may be honey chile and darlin' one minute, but steely-eyed and I-dont-know-ya the next. Like the Mafia kiss of death, they may say "I'm praying for you" as their final word. Later, they will add this curse to any mention of your name - "Bless his heart."

So this is my newly imagined meter - Pietism.

We are all influenced by Pietism. 

1. Blue laws keep people from buying certain products on Sunday. Pietism. 
2. Some may not pray with their Lutheran relatives. Pietism. 
3. Some WELSians regard only those WELS members from the same state to be true blue. Pietism. 
4. One LCMS seminary is far superior to the other one. Pietism.
5. One never asks a Philadelphia graduate if he went to Gettysburg. And vice versa. Pietism.
6. Hating the liturgy, creeds, hymns, and pipe organ. Pietism.
7. Thinking the real church is in the cell group. Pietism.
8. Mutual hatred among Auburn and Alabama fans. Green Bay and Vikings fans. Pietism.
9. Use of the NIV by Lutheran synods - Pietism.
10. All the synods in America came from Pietism.

Pietism excludes the Book of Concord, and the Lutheran Confessions exclude Pietism. Let us exclude the term Confessional Lutheran for all time. Richard John Neuhaus, a pastor in LCMS-AELC-LCA-ELCA was a Confessional Lutheran until the moment he became a Roman Catholic priest. Everyone is a Confessional Lutheran today, so the term is meaningless, especially since so many are really neo-Pietists or quasi-Universalists or Masons.

Someone who 

• knows, 
• reads, 
• appreciates, 
• and uses the Book of Concord as a one-volume Biblical commentary

will necessarily loathe Pietism, its crafts and assaults.

The UOJ Stormtroopers have no assurance of forgiveness, in spite of their blabbing about grace and the world being declared forgiven at various points in time (birth, death, resurrection of Christ). They love, love, love Babtist and Pentecostal worship because there is some hint of justification by faith, even if those Enthusiasts trash everything else. The Stormtroopers really are forgiveness-starved and need our pity.

Luther and the Book of Concord exclude Pietism just as oil excludes water. Want to rust-proof your car from the inside? Spray WD-40 into the recesses. The light oil will cling to the metal and exclude water. In the same way, 

• the power and efficacy of the Word
• the Means of Grace
• the work of the Spirit through the Word alone, 
• the Sacraments, and
• justification by faith

will exclude the crafts and assaults of Pietism, repelling those odious associations and errors. Those Lutherans enrolled in the Book of Concord fan club will not fall prey to the fads and feelings of Pietism. 

The more Lutherans let go of the Book of Concord, the more they sink into the Slough of Pietism. Evidence - the despicable UOJ essay by Jay Webber mentions Luther's Commentary on Galatians, which is highly commended by the Book of Concord, but Webber never deals with the content of that treasury of spiritual knowledge. One can pose as a Lutheran and gain the applause of other frauds, snake-oil salesmen, and wolves, but the evidence remains.

That is why Lutheran publishing is so pitiful today.

Melanchthon graded your Emmaus paper - "F." 

Still an F.

Luther has your number, Synodicrats.