The Foundational Myth of LCMS/WELS - Bishop Stephan and Pope Walther

This is the Immaculate Conception of CFW Walther.
According to LutherQuest (sic) and Christian News,
Walther is the Master and Prince, the judge of all books,
all Christian doctrine. 

Stephan-Walther Myths

1. Stephan took his group to America for religious freedom. False - he had too much freedom. He was under house arrest for multiple adulteries and misuse of funds. He was already being treated for syphilis and gave that to his wife and children.
2. Stephan was a faithful Lutheran. False - he was more Confessional than most, but he was a Pietist and given a Pietist congregation of Bohemians. He came to believe he was the sole Means of Grace in Europe.
3. Walther did not sign the document making Stephan his bishop-for-life. False - Walther did sign the document and served as Stephan's enforcer of discipline, but was mistrusted as a "fox."
4. The big scandal was discovering Stephan committed adultery. Haha. False - Stephan left Europe with his only healthy child in the ship and his main mistress in the next cabin, but did not take his sick wife and children (syphilis). Stephan was constantly in the company of young women in the middle of the night and a trial revealed that he considered himself the master of their souls and bodies. The Walther circle even admitted that the adultery confession story was false, but it is told and re-told to this day.
5. The brave Walther dealt with the bishop and gave him three choices about his adultery. False. Barrels of laughs - Walther organized the mob that came down from St. Louis and also worked secretly with his Perryville pals. No one has three choices with a rifle pointed at him. The mob took everything the bishop had, which was very handy for a bankrupt cult. They forced the bishop across the river. The syphilis outbreak among the young women was the motivation for the riot. Few know today how horrible a disgrace that was, dooming the women to a slow death. Yes, the bishop was a rotten rat, but the enablers were so much worse for donning their halos far too late. Synodical leadership has not changed one little bit.
6. Walther was a Luther unawares. False, getting acid reflux - I guess that Emmaus topic got pulled for some reason. Walther earned a BA in a rationalistic system that hated Pietists. How did he get his call? He must have double-talked the examining board. His real religion was Pietism, although his father was a rationalist (think ELCA). Walther almost died of extreme Pietism, mortification of the flesh, and clung to Stephan's UOJ, which "saved his life." Where he had freedom, Walther was a Pietist, associated with Pietists, and obeyed a Pietist guru - Stephan. 

***

 The Walther shrine, recently refurbished, which is appropriate, since Missouri and ELCA agree about UOJ.

To understand American Lutheran doctrine, one must hack through the brambles of American Lutheran mythology. As I wrote before, many of the UOJ fanatics are burdened with maintaining the Herman A. Preus myth, complicated by the Preus Clan myth. A young Preus must admit to himself that his entire family has left an indelible bad impression on Biblical theology by falling for Halle Pietism at its worst.

At the same time, the Preus youngling has to explain how the most articulate of the Preus family, Robert, repudiated the eternal verities of Universal Absolution and Salvation Without Faith, commonly known as Objective Justification, Universal Justification, General Justification, and Justification of the World. One phrase they cannot utter is Justification by Faith, but Robert advocated the Chief Article and abandoned UOJ in Justification and Rome.

The greatest burden of all is the Bishop Martin Stephan and CFW Walther myth. The two belong together because wily CFW crafted the origins story and kept people from telling the truth. Now the facts are known but denied. Missourians sound like the Roman Catholics who claim, "The Church has always taught the Immaculate Conception of Mary." QED - you are a dolt, a devil, or an evildoer.

In short, Bishop Martin Stephan was a Pietist cult leader who preyed upon young women and ultimately gave them syphilis, a horrible disease that he inflicted on his wife and his children (except the oldest son). They died in misery, the children in institutions. The Walther circle was 100% Pietistic and followed Stephan with utmost obedience. They knew he was an adulterer before he took them all to America. Walther bided his time and organized the mob to depose and rob the bishop, apparently when the syphilis broke out among the girls and shamed a number of families.

Suddenly, Walther and selected thugs were outraged,steamed down to Perryville, and

• threatened the bishop's life (a felony), 
• stole all his gold (a felony), 
• took away his property (a felony), 
• grabbed his enormous library and personal belongings (a felony), and kidnapped him at gunpoint (a felony), 
• forcing him to live in Illinois (definitely a felony).

 1 Timothy 3:16 does not teach that the world was absolved of all sin, justified without faith, when Jesus rose from the dead.

Walther took over as pope, in his usual crafty and circumspect way, and began teaching the Easter Absolution of the World, which he learned from Stephan, a man too lazy to earn his minimal clergy credentials by graduating from the university. He did attend Halle, where UOJ was dominant. 

Walther divided Lutherans with his zany emphasis on election without faith, which was another way to prop up his flimsy Justification without Faith. As far as I can see, there was a lot of lying about "in view of faith," a lot of smoke blown in people's faces. I still read mentions of a catechism no one seems to own anymore. But the aftermath, besides all the division Walther caused, is an increasingly absurd group of dogmatic claims about UOJ.

The DNA of UOJ is easy to trace. Its contagion was slow but gradually reached the Synodical Conference through Walther's domineering influence. Nor was UOJ something unique to the Perryville cult. Pietistic rationalism across Europe came to the same conclusions. The first part of UOJ (forgiving the entire world) soon became the only message of modern mainline theology, thanks to Schleiermacher (Halle trained, Halle professor) and others.

Walther made sure Franz Pieper followed him as seminary professor, so St. Louis produced a steady supply of UOJists, with intermarriage concentrating the autosomal recessive gene. By forcing the Wisconsin sect into supplying pastoral candidates, another UOJ cadre was achieved within WELS, which established its own seminary again - with UOJ teachers.

That does not mean UOJ was foreign to Protestantism. Former Calvinists find the language quite familiar. The Knapp theology textbook, where OJ/SJ was enshrined in the comments, was dominant in 19th century America, remaining in print today. Likewise, the best-selling Barth-Kirschbaum dogmatics profoundly affected the weak-kneed Evangelicalism of today, dropping the SJ for OJ all the way. UOJ never had much to do with faith because the dogma is 99.9% world forgiveness and world salvation.

Like the unScriptural claims about Mary in the Church of Rome, UOJ has a wealth of books - if wealth is the right term - supporting its dogma, plus many articles published by those insiders who are either trusted for their names or related to the readers by blood.

Walther did a superb job of crop-dusting all those who might interfere with his leadership. They were all false teachers. However, someone could leave Concordia, St. Louis for the Church of Rome, argue for papal dogma, and still be honored by all the UOJists - Edward Preuss. Notre Dame gave him their highest award for his promotion of Marian dogma, but the UOJists cite him and quote him like he is a warm, comforting blanket of grace.

 Grand theft marked the triumph of the Walther mob that kidnapped Bishop Stephan and left him to die in Illinois. Stephan's mistress came across and joined him. Stephan's wife and children died in Dresden.