Calvin
Ruined the Protestant Faith:
The
Swiss Reformation Gave Us Barth, Tillich, and Justification without Faith
Public
Domain
Pastor
Gregory L. Jackson, PhD
Illustrated
by Norma A. Boeckler
Contents
Calvin Ruined the Protestant Faith: The Swiss Reformation
Gave Us Barth, Tillich, and Justification without Faith
Introduction
The Reformation began a
century earlier than most people count, when Hus refused to subordinate
doctrine to the power of the Vatican. In response, they burned him at the stake.
According to tradition, he said, “You are burning a goose (Hus is goose in
Czech), but out of these flames will rise a swan.” One hundred years later, the
Reformation began in earnest, with Martin Luther’s life spared, the newly
invented printing press spreading the Word of God. Hus did not die in vain,
because his message against tyranny continued and served as an indictment
against Luther but centuries later a symbol of opposition to Russian
oppression. Those who longed for freedom in Czechoslovakia gathered around the
Hus monument in Prague.
The German Reformation was
based upon profound faith in the Scriptures – not the pope – revealing God’s
will. This Biblical emphasis was not Luther’s alone. Nevertheless, it was a
minority view easily quashed when the established Church had centuries of
myths, legends, traditions, decrees, saints, and intellectuals backing Medieval
errors and attacks on the Gospel itself. Just as we see today in Protestant and
Lutheran seminaries, the students were not taught the content of the
Scriptures, but loyalty to the institutional church and trust in worldly wisdom
to be successful.
Luther quickly became a
European hero because of his thrilling emphasis upon the Word, his ability to
teach it in the language of the people rather than the elegant Latin of the
scholars. This proved on its own that the Spirit always teaches through the
Word rather than through man’s reasoned and ponderous dogmatic textbooks.
The
price of success was jealousy.
First Zwingli, then Calvin
sought to join the Reformation while building their own system that rivaled and
raged against Luther’s Biblical teaching. Far less educated and able than
Luther, Zwingli and Calvin sought to improve upon the Reformer, leaving behind
a rivalry that opposed Lutheran doctrine and also attached itself to Lutheran
doctrine, creating an amalgam in Pietism first, later in systematic theology
that made the field an exercise in creative writing.
1.
Zwingli and Calvin opposed and mocked the Means
of Grace, yet Zwingli raged at the Anabaptists, who took him at his word.
2.
The inherent weakness of the Swiss was their
magisterial use of reason. Human reason judged the Scriptures.
3.
This magisterial use of reason also contributed
to the sectarian use of Scripture, where verses or partial verses are clawed
out of the Bible to use as a hammer against viewing the Bible as one unified
Truth, the Book of the Holy Spirit, as Luther called it.
4.
The rationalism of the Calvinist dogmaticians
led to Lutheran intellectuals aiming thick volumes against them, tome for tome,
Latin topics for Latin topics, a period called orthodoxy but one which lacked
the spirit and content of the 16th century Reformation.
5.
Pietism was a response to this style of
re-inventing Thomas Aquinas, and the new movement began with a genuine spirit
of learning the content of the Bible. Halle University was established to teach
Biblical piety, but the weaknesses of Pietism invited and then relied on
rationalism to explain those small sections of the Scriptures they could still
tolerate.
6.
All of modern theology and Biblical
“scholarship” comes from Halle Pietism turned into Halle rationalism.
7.
In the new Biblical “scholarship” we find the
spirit of Zwingli and Calvin, and in Objective Justification the
bizarre claim of universal forgiveness without faith.
8.
Barth, Tillich, Bultmann, and most of the rest
are rationalists.
9.
Barth is the official theologian of Fuller
Seminary, probably the most influential theologian for Protestants, Lutherans,
and even Catholics.
First Step in This Study
Eric Metaxis’ biography of
Luther has many wonderful anecdotes in it, in the style of Roland Bainton, whom
we heard teach at Yale University.[1] Metaxis, Bainton, and
others have commented upon Luther’s singular devotion to the Scriptures as the
Word of God. Most laity will think, “Of course. Luther is known for that.” But
this is not just a talking point for increasingly feeble Reformation services. Luther’s
return to the Word was a revolution, a revolution betrayed first by Zwingli and
Calvin, then by rationalist, Pietist, and synodical Lutherans.
The Scriptures, the sixty-six
canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, are the singular Word of God,
His direct revelation by the Holy Spirit through human authors. Anything else
is judged by the Bible, which judges all books. Moreover, this Word is the will
of God, so nothing contrary to the Scriptures can be taught or practiced and be
called Christian.
Protestants consider Roman
Catholicism a major departure from the Gospel, which is entirely true.
Non-Catholics are astonished at the volumes of canonical law, the endless collections
of dogmatics on topics unknown to Evangelicals:
·
Purgatory,
·
the Immaculate Conception of Mary,
·
the Assumption of Mary,
·
indulgences, and
·
papal infallibility.
How can these new dogmas be
taught? Their answer - The greatest and oldest teachers established them, so
how can anyone defy the holy and blessed writings of Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine,
Aquinas, and so many others, many treated with visions Christ, Mary, and the
souls of Purgatory. Besides, what was not taught openly by the Apostles was
passed down, a sacred deposit, through generations of bishops.
Are the established Lutherans
not the Neo-Catholics today, aping the same excuses for new and contrary dogmas?
They are so harmonious with the Roman style that many famous Lutherans have
become Roman Catholic priests and lay teachers:
1. Richard J. Neuhaus (1990) –
Deceased, became a priest.
2. Robert L. Wilken (1994) - Professor
at University of Virginia.
3. Leonard Klein (2003) was
the Lutheran Forum editor, became a
priest.
4. Phillip M. Johnson (2006).
5. Bruce
Marshall.....................Professor at St. Olaf.
6. David
Fagerberg...................Professor at Concordia College, Moorhead.
7. Richard
Hutter......................Professor at Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago.
8. Mickey Mattox......................Professor
at Marquette University.
9. Michael Root
(2010)............. Professor at Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
10. Russell Saltzman (2016) –
Former editor of the Lutheran Forum.
11. ELCiC Bishop Robert
Jacobson became a priest.
ELCA and ELCiC - the Canadian
parallel church, have so debased the currency of Lutheran teaching that no one
can consider them Christian organizations. They have abandoned the doctrines of
the Bible in their forced march as social justice warriors, enforcing a selective
diversity that only tolerates their agenda. The articles of faith in the
Apostles Creed were rejected and mocked last century in the Braaten-Jenson Christian Dogmatics double volume special.
The Trinity, the divinity of Christ, His miracles and Atonement, His
resurrection and ascension – all were jettisoned.
Wise men say it is far easier
to fool people than it is to convince them they were conned. And so it is with
Synodical Conference. They want to call themselves the true Lutherans while
shuddering at what ELCA teaches and practices. But the LCMS-WELS-ELS leaders work
with ELCA continuously, though they keep it a secret.[2] Some became alerted when
the entire faculty of Concordia Seminary St. Louis, LCMS, attacked two districts
for challenging their backpedaling on Creation.
Sadly, the LCMS-ELS-WELS
leaders are almost as Roman as their Catholic counterparts:
The writings of C.F.W. Walther
are not only canonical, but hyper-canonical, superseding the Scriptures,
Confessions, and Reformation - and used to explain dogmas never found in the
Bible until Calvinism and Pietism.
The Pieper dogmatics and the
equally prolixic Confessing the Gospel
are dreadful, soul-killing volumes, not drawing out the truths of the Scriptures,
as the Book of Concord does with great consistency. Instead, they build up an
official paper cathedral, filled with the traditions of man.
The Wisconsin Synod leaders
did their best to keep Hoenecke untranslated, but that was finally completed so
it could be embalmed in English. Their real masters are the Church and Change founders
who left Luther long ago for Karl Barth and Charlotte Kirschbaum.
Set Aside Luther, His God, His Views
In the “Joy of Bach” TV
special, Brian Blessed – as Bach - made a point about the great composer and “his
God” with condescending grin on his face. Luther parasites do the same. They
use Luther the way they do the Scriptures, as a springboard for creative
writing far removed from the source. Anyone can write a book about “Luther’s
God” or “Luther’s Gospel” without believing a word he wrote.
Staupitz made Luther a
Professor of the Bible, a scholar of the Bible, by giving him a teaching
position and the requirement of earning a doctorate in the Scriptures. Seldom
do people realize that “doctor” means teacher, not physician, in Latin. Thus
the Medieval professors and theologians were
expected, as Chemnitz was, to earn a doctorate. In contrast, Walther only had an
undergraduate degree, but he made himself the pseudo-founder, the pope, and the
theologian of the synod founded by the Loehe missionaries.[3]
Luther had an extraordinary
education, not only in the teachings of the Medieval Church, but also in the
Scriptures. He was both priest and professor, but also the supervisor of
monasteries, highly respected and honored for his brilliant teaching.
Luther saw what is clearly
taught in the Scriptures, and he maintained a consistent advocacy for the plain
meaning of the Bible as the judge of all books, contrasted with the pope and
councils judging the Scriptures and teaching what they pleased.
Over time, every man-made religious
tradition gathers the honor of being old, associated with great or famous men,
and perhaps ancient back to the beginning. The fashions of the age shape professors
and their teaching. Safe attitudes and familiar authorities smooth the path
toward a teaching career. As Yale professor Paul L. Holmer taught, a new idea
appears every 50 years and people make careers out of repeating it in various
ways until a new concept appears.[4]
Luther allowed himself to be
taught by the Holy Spirit, as everyone is who reads the Scriptures with
sincerity and a humble attitude. Thus he had the wrenching but thrilling experience
of seeing most of his previous learning being exposed as false by the
Scriptures. Observing his example, this is how we should read the Scriptures:
1.
They are the unique revelation of God.
2.
Because the Bible is the Book of the Holy
Spirit, the passages are all part of one unified Truth, not a game in which
verses or partial verses are fished out to support false doctrine.
3.
They have only one purpose – to teach faith in
Jesus Christ, Who declares the true nature of His Father: kindly, loving,
gracious, and forgiving.
4.
Because they are the Spirit at work in the
Word, they have the power to carry out God’s will, always effective, always
abundant in the outcome, whether in revealing and converting to faith or in damning
and blinding in the face of obstinate unbelief.
Those Unfortunate Adulterers – Tillich, Barth, and
Kirschbaum
You lucky ones never heard of
Paul Tillich, who was such a celebrity that Time magazine featured him on the
cover. As his wife and students knew, he was an obsessive adulterer who even
slept with the wives of his graduate students. Now he is largely forgotten. His
biographer, a friend on the radical leftist Union Seminary faculty, did his
best to make a case for Tillich. Honesty compelled him to point out the many
hyperboles about the man, often promoted by Tillich himself.
Tillich was the guiding light
of my LCA seminary.[5]
The future head of the school took a year off all other work to study Tillich! He
and the systematics professor quoted Tillich back and forth in seminars. Then,
alas soon after, two Notre Dame faculty members expressed the same adoring
attitude toward the dead, pantheistic fraud. One professor now enjoys an
endowed professorship at Harvard.
The most important adulterous
theologians are Karl Barth and his Marxist mistress, Charlotte Kirschbaum. I
knew about their relationship in the 1970s, from the former president of the
Barth Society, who told our doctoral seminar. I also understood Barth’s politics
from the scholarship of a Yale classmate, which like the Pietism of Walther,
seldom trickles down to the masses.
Barth and Kirschbaum lived
together, even in his own home, with his wife and children, and traveled on
celebrity theologian tours, where they stayed in hosts’ homes in the same room,
one bed. The known but hidden Marxism and adultery are significant when
considering their enormous impact on Protestantism and Catholicism.
Barth needed Charlotte to make
him look like a scholar. Neither one was a believer, except in Marxism, so they
constructed a monumental filter to move everyone away from traditional Christianity.
When I mentioned this to a conservative Evangelical professor, he was
absolutely furious. Considering the impact of Barth as THE theologian of Fuller
Seminary and the school’s monopoly in ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS, Barth-Kirschbaum are
the belladonna of all Lutherans - and American Christianity as well.
The Barth-Kirschbaum effect
has to be considered as the Rosetta Stone for theology today, with one
difference. Instead of clarifying what was revealed in the Scriptures, it is a
license to use any passage, any known fact, as a passage to adventures in
religious thinking. Thus Barth-Kirschbaum’s Dogmatics
was not only a good start for Marxist liberation theology, but also for the
hideous strength of Church Growth, aka Missional, aka Emergent trends.
Watchful Dragons
The watchful dragons, as C. S.
Lewis described them, are always on guard and ready to shred anyone who meddles
with their safe, apostate, easily flexible teaching. As one LCA author wrote
for a study, “We will assume for the purpose of this study that Paul wrote the
Epistle to the Romans.” Did he read but not comprehend the salutation? – “Paul, a
servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God…”
The attacks are fashioned as a
signal to the knowing that it is “against the Gospel to take the Gospel
seriously.” Believers read the words and assume, “This man knows Paul wrote Romans.”
The membership is relaxed by a Biblical study and slowly moved into the right
frame of mind. Those who react in anger are dismissed and hated away.
For example, the laziest
pastors in America are the Fulleroids who refuse to do the one thing needful,
meditate on the Gospel and teach faith. Instead, they plagiarize sermons from
those they deem successful – i.e. not faithful to the Word – barely budge from
their computer planning programs. Their reaction to critics? – lazy!
The Scriptures are the Solution
If we go back to the Scriptures
and see how Zwingli and Calvin turned Protestants against God’s Word, then the
return to truth will
[1] My
wife Christina attended the lectures with me, and we took newborn Martin to
hear Bainton and be photographed with him second semester. When Luther’s son,
Martin Junior, was mentioned, our son said “Eeep!” and raised his arm in his newborn
carrier. The student audience knew our baby and laughed.
[2] In
Christian News, I posted stories of LCA-ALC-WELS-LCMS-ELS
cohabitations, funded by AAL-LB (Thrivent). I even traveled to Luther Seminary
to find more proof at their library. Soon the insurance companies stopped
glorifying the joint evangelism, worship, and leadership efforts. But they
continue, and the “conservatives” let ELCA call the tune, because so much insurance
money is paving their path to oblivion. So they dance to “Baby, I’m Burning”
rather than singing “God’s Word Is Our Great Heritage.”
[3] Pastor
Martin Stephan led the migration to America, and Walter signed the document
making their leader bishop-for-life. The Loehe missionaries organized what we
call the Missouri Synod and asked the Stephan cult if they wanted to join. Walther
broke with Loehe, but asked for the Ft. Wayne school to be given to him, with financial
subsidies to continue.
[4]
Yale had an interesting tradition of always calling professors “Mr.” even
though almost all of them had earned PhDs. But that is no more peculiar than
the synods calling their DMins “Dr” even though the degree is a rated a master’s
degree, if that. One DMin copied Holy Land travel brochures as one of his
doctoral papers and received an A and “nice work, Ronnie.”
[5]
The Lutheran Church in America, 1962, joined with the ALC in Canada to become
ELCiC, that is, ELCA with a kick. The seminary is now a separate school on the
same campus and has very few pastoral students. Most are trained in counseling.
Strange how such a wealth of relational relevance turned so many Lutheran seminaries
into empty shells.
