Walther and the Predestination Controversy Reviewed by a Customer

 The print edition is here - Walther and the Predestination Controversy.

Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the LCMS's peculiar doctrine of justification without regard to faith

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2020

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This book is a re-issue of a classic work that was published in 1897. It was produced by individuals who opposed the erroneous doctrines introduced by CFW Walther, who was the founder and chief theologian of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) on justification and election. The tone of this book is somewhat polemic.

The book consists of 3 sections, each of which can be read as a stand-alone document:

Part 1 provides a historical background to the predestination controversy that arose in the LCMS in the last quarter of the 19th century
Part 2 is titled “Intuitu Fidei” (in view of faith). The authors provide excerpts from the writings of Lutheran theologians from the 16th and 17th centuries to document the traditional Lutheran doctrine of justification and election which Walther's new doctrines contradicted.

Part 3 is titled “The Blue Island Theses”. This is a statement of 5 principles of traditional Lutheran doctrine on justification and election published in 1881 by theologians who left the LCMS in protest to Walther's new doctrines.

If you are a member of the LCMS or the Wisconsin Synod (which adopted Walther's doctrines in this matter), then you need to read this book. You will see how the peculiar LCMS doctrine of justification without regard to faith (known as Universal Objective Justification or UOJ) came to be. If you've heard your Pastor or some synod official talk about UOJ and you always wanted to refute their claims that UOJ is 'real Lutheran doctrine', and how 'Walther got it right and everyone else got it wrong', this book has all the information you need. It lays out the Biblical doctrine of justification and provides quotes from the writings of Martin Luther and the Lutheran theologians in the 16th and 17th centuries, documenting what the real Lutheran doctrine is.

This book also describes the tactics that Walther used to smear and discredit the people inside the LCMS and in other Lutheran groups who opposed his doctrines. In fairness, we should take the authors' descriptions of Walther's behavior with a grain of salt, since they were his opponents and they ended up on the losing side of the controversy.

The Earthworm and Hurricane Laura

I had a large plastic barrel in the backyard, where the bushes held it captive for at least a year. It could be useful somewhere else, so I pulled it into the sunlight, bagged the paper trash, and looked inside. The remains of some gardening work was at the bottom. The sun was overhead, so I saw large earthworm moving and glistening in the sunlight, as if it had the most peaceful place on the planet to rest and grow.

I set him free by turning the barrel upside-down. An earthworm in sunlight will burrow down at once, using its bristles like tank treads and opening a path through the soil with its mouth.

Hurricane Laura will pass through Arkansas soon, taking an eastward turn at some point. The edge on radar is at Ft. Smith, 100 miles south of us. Big storms leave the NW corner of Arkansas alone or offer up only a tiny sample of the damage caused. How else would you get your Tyson chickens and EDLP (every day low prices)?

Hurricanes always cause fear, evacuations, and months of repair afterwards. Earthworms do not, but they bury civilization by building up soil relentlessly. They can even change a forest. If earthworms enter an evergreen forest via the boots of fishermen and hunters, the steady calcifying work and their reproduction will change the soil and make it less acid, less pine-friendly.

Christians are the earthworms, literally called New Creations from the Gospel Word converting them to believers in Christ. God does this work through the powerful Word of preaching and the Sacraments - the visible Word.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [ktisis - creation] : old things [archaic things] are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

17 ωστε ει τις εν χριστω καινη κτισις: τα αρχαια παρηλθεν ιδου γεγονεν καινα τα παντα


The thieves and liars from Fuller Seminary promise multitudes of Happy Campers if their products are bought and used. They are more like hurricanes for a few days, noisy and destructive, with repairs necessary for a long time afterwards.

 This all works together by design, in spite of our mistakes, but this web is even more productive by understanding Creation.