From the biography of Schmauk:
The Minister of Christ will manifest Christ in the strength of individuality. He will not follow the stream whichever way it leads. From the cut of his coat to the formation of his opinion, from the most trifling act to the weightiest decision, he will not do only as others do. He will not dread being in a minority. He will not become a mere reflection, an echo, a shadow of those with whom he mingles. He will not imitate either preacher or thinker. Rooted firmly in the Word, he will develop and proceed in his own way, as God intended he should. — Schmauk.
From George W. Sandt, Theodore Emanuel
Schmauk A Biographical Sketch, Chapter 5.
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GJ - I was reading a little of the ALPB Online, about the latest scandal in ELCA. Their star ELCA pastor, who is also a journalist, began yapping about the Book of Concord:
"Can we trust anything in the Bible, Pastor Fienen, that is not verified by that collection of Lutheran partisan documents written to historically specific situations 500 years ago?"
If someone presses a WELS pastor to offer a class on the Book of Concord, he will snort and say, "The Confessions are old, boring, and irrelevant." When using their double-talk, which they perfect in their hazing sacrament at Mordor, a WELS pastor will declaim about a quia subscription to the Book of Concord, a book he has barely opened and secretly despises - as he was taught by the profs.
Pastor Austin's attitude is exactly the same as taught in the LCA in the 1970s. The LCA assumed - Nothing mattered after 1530. Chemnitz, in the LCA, was not a genius faithful to Biblical theology, but a retrograde placing cast iron over every Biblical phrase.
The dunderheads in WELS motivated me to study Chemnitz, the Book of Concord, and the confessional struggles in the General Council/General Synod (which also involved WELS' history).
Schmauk represents the battle which he and others were fighting but losing to the future ULCA. Nevertheless - Schmauk, Krauth, and Henry E. Jacobs are worth reading and quoting today.
The Henkels began promoting and publishing the Confessions in English in the US.
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| "Beyond them..." opens the gates to UOJ, Church Growth, and everything else. |
