Someone brought up the Evangelical and Reformed denomination (very big in St. Louis), which was Germanic. Evangelical meant Geman Lutheran and Reformed meant German Calvinist. Someone observed this long ago that - those groups ("union" after the Prussian Union of those two confessions) - lasted longer with a Lutheran emphasis than they did with Calvinists dominating. Calvinists inevitably become Unitarian (spelled otherwise - Tis I Ruin a Man).
The E and R was Germanic because it was absorbed by the eventual United Church of Christ, which may be one degree more conservative than the Unitarian-Universalist group (not a church). The Niebuhr brothers were E and R.
There were many union organizations and parishes. The General Synod, forerunner to the LCA, had plenty of union congregations. That often meant a pastor who offered Lutheran communion one Sunday and Reformed Lord's Supper on alternate Sundays, Lutheran catechism to one group of kids, Reformed catechism to the other group of kids. No clucking of tongues, y' hear? The "conservative" Lutherans are just the same today.
Union congregations are well known. St. Paul in German Village, Ohio, was a union congregation in the beginning. The St. Paul pastor who made it more Lutheran was a Henkel brother. Still, he thought the Mason Lodge was great. The Calvinists marched out in anger, but the Masons stayed and were communed by the WELS circuit pastor Keith Roehl. WELS and the ELS were supporters of Masonic members but pretended otherwise.
The big WELS church in New Ulm was union, until a new WELS church said, "I thought we dealt with this." The Calvinists marched out and built their own church, which was bought by the CLC, Faith Lutheran Church - only a block or two away. The marchers sold the Faith location and built a United Church of Christ church downtown.
My parents were members of Plymouth Congregational in Moline but left for the Disciples of Christ congregation nearby, First Christian. The Disciples denomination said they would gather all denominations and split four ways. My sister belonged to one of the extreme "conservative" breakoffs of the now, radical Leftwing Disciples.
Denominations close to Calvinism rapidly become anti-Scriptural and driven by activist political action. The rainbow coalition of today's schools and politics began with the Leftwing denominations and the Calvinist-infused Lutheran synods.
I hope everyone is beginning to smell the pot-roast.
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| Stephan had to leave his congregation behind, because of his sexual crimes, which continued as he ushered the boot-licking Walther circle across the ocean. Stephan's mistress was in the next cabin and his wife and most children left at home. Ask Jay Webber, Roger Kovaciny, and WELS-ELS how that worked for them and Floyd Luther Stolzenburg. |
How Lutheran are the LCMS and WELS? Not very.
Both groups came from the Lutheran-Reformed union called Pietism. Both pretended to dislike Pietism, but they were deep into it and now people can see modern Missouri and hip WELS as very Calvinistic, a nightmare of Lutheran slogans and Calvinist rationalism.
Walther and his gang were Pietists who ate, slept around, and drank Pietism. Martin Stephan, the Third Martin, taught Objective Justification which came from Halle University. The Pietists sent missionaries to America while the state churches wanted people to stay home. Thus, American denominations are largely Pietistic if they started later, in the Midwest, instead of the Pilgrims who came earlier as Calvinists.
Objective Justification is not the teaching of the Bible, Luther, Melanchthon, or Chemnitz - nor the Book of Concord. Although the LCMS and WELS began as union denominations (especially WELS), they fought hard for the orthodox label without fighting at all for Biblical doctrine. Like the Methodists still leaving Holy Mother Headquarters, the Lutherans are leaving their historic synods and creating wacky synodettes.
Walther was a crock from the beginning, a kiss-up for the promiscuous Bishop Stephan until CFW had a chance to steal the gold, land, books, and personal possessions of Stephan. At that point Stephan was felony forced to go to Illinois - at gunpoint. Walther was just as much a criminal as Stephan but made himself The Great Walther.
Walther was only a B.A. and did not have a grasp of the Biblical languages. He insisted on German and Latin at his own seminary.
I believe, because the LCMS was so German, Walther could not make a direct hit on Justification by Faith. He never gave up on Objective Justification, which declared that the entire world was absolved of all sin (first premise). The second premise was that someone had to accept the first premise. This was identical to the dogma of Halle Pietism, taught by Rambach, Stephan, Jon-Boy Buchholz, and Jay Webber.
The OJ fanatics hate Luther's doctrine, which is Biblical doctrine. WELS SP Mirthless Mark Schroeder has declared that WELS was orthodox from Day One, which is hilariously or tragically wrong.
The OJ fanatics also loathe the KJV and mock it whenever they inhale. All the modern translations (especially Beck) rely on two fraudulent sources - Vaticanus and Sinaiticus - and they remove the divinity of Christ and faith in Christ to serve their Father Below.
Mirthless Mark and Matt the Fatt Harrison are the Clown Princes of OJ, unionism with ELCA, and many more maladies. The worst is their teaching against the Chief Article, Justification by Faith.
WELS has a brain-dead conference coming up, full of Fuller and Trinity Divinity types. One declared that OJ is the Chief Article of Christianity. Not only are they false teachers of the worst kind - they are also liars about their false doctrine. For those who are sweaty with fervor for LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC, the Chief Article is Justification by Faith in Christ.
See how silky their service to Satan is? They use OJ/Chief Article and Justification to pound the table declaring forgiveness without faith. They confuse the Atonement with Justification, which is Walther's own confusion.
In contrast - and they do not see this - Romans teaches that grace only comes through faith in Christ. Look that up in Romans 5.
Faith and Grace Go Together
KJV Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. [For those who graduated without Greek or faith, the word access can be seen as a meeting point.]
KJV 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,
