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| Walther's Predestination War was really a promotion of Justification without Faith. John Brenner wrote his dissertation on that era. |
This section of the Formula of Concord, Election, #11, Solid Declaration,
Book of Concord, should be read and considered carefully, especially in
light of the elevated, quasi-inspired Brief Statement, 1932, of the Missouri
Synod. The Brief Statement is a doctrinal fiasco, yet elevated to quia
status by the misnamed Church of the Lutheran Church, a statement honored and
yet not understood by the WELS and the ELS.
Martin Chemnitz wrote this section of the Formula of Concord himself,
not because it was an issue, but to prevent error from arising later, as it did
with CFW Walther himself. Walther ignored this warning –
13. Therefore, if we wish to think or speak correctly and
profitably concerning eternal election, or the predestination and ordination of
the children of God to eternal life, we should accustom ourselves not to
speculate concerning the bare, secret, concealed, inscrutable foreknowledge
of God, but how the counsel, purpose, and ordination of God in Christ Jesus,
who is the true Book of Life, is revealed to us through the Word…[1]
If people pay attention to the word-play of Walther and his acolytes,
the Election of Grace is nothing more than a cover for his claim for grace in
Justification, pitting grace against faith in both topics.
The straw man fallacy in both cases is faith. To this day,
Synodical Conference loyalists warn the innocent, “Do not make faith a work of
man.” That assumes faith is a work of man, making faith something to condemn. They
imagine that making faith disappear elevates the role of grace. Ironically,
many believe this with righteous certainty – and they are the leaders of the
mainline denominations. They are Calvinistic heirs of rationalism, so they
naturally sink into Universalism, all people being saved - without faith - due
to God’s overwhelming grace.
Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace;
to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is
of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the
father of us all,
Denying faith in Justification makes forgiveness a product of the
Law, not grace. Divorcing election from faith continues that error.
This is my speculation, based on extensive reading about this
topic, starting with Augustine, Calvin, the Molinists, LCMS history, and
related issues –
Walther taught the Justification of the Halle Pietists that he
learned from Bishop Stephan. He never deviated from that position. However, the
Lutheran leaders of the 19th century were not easily fooled. The
Missouri Synod’s official position was Justification for a considerable period
and the Wisconsin Synod was no different. Proof of the Wisconsin heritage, only
recently abandoned, is the number of people raised with the Gausewitz Catechism,
taught Justification by Faith. The perpetrator of the Kokomo conflict in WELS
admitted he had never heard of Objective Justification until he reached the
seminary at Mequon.
But now the clergy are easily fooled. The burning and shining
lights of their synods call themselves “Doctor” and insist on that title
because they paid Fuller Seminary for a drive-by DMin degree.
Walther wanted his dogma to prevail and used Election for that
purpose. He wanted Loy to sign onto a paper at a conference. Loy reported that
he could not, and that Walther was so enraged by this that he withdrew that essay
from the conference. Was that Walther’s precious Election without Faith
argument? I believe so.
The so-called Grace War was really Walther’s attempt to get rid of
those dissenting from his false doctrine and to rule the survivors as the
Number One Theologian. He issued a call to Loy to be a seminary professor, and
Loy turned it down. Was that an attempt to neutralize a German-speaking,
brilliant theologian and hymn-writer?
John Brenner wrote a PhD dissertation on this era and agrees that
the Grace or Election War was a way to shore up Walther’s Objective
Justification.
