WELS Pastor Summarized the Sect's Problems in The History of Pietism by H. Schmid

 

“The Crypto-Calvinistic controversy shortly before the publication of the Formula of Concord involved Reformed theology trying to enter the Lutheran church. Ritschl, who dealt mainly with Reformed Pietism, shows the Reformed origin of all the various parts of Pietism. Pietism was Reformed theology’s attempt to get into the Lutheran church. Today we encounter the same thing in various forms, such as the Church Growth Movement.

In the 1570s, hidden Reformed roots had to be concealed, for as soon as they were exposed, the controversy was at an end; hence Crypto-Calvinism. Much less concealment was practiced in the case of Pietism. Reformed books and practices were openly recommended. Today we have advanced to such an extent that we can use Reformed materials, principles, and practices without harming our Lutheranism—or so we think. We think we can “spoil the Egyptians” of their useful practices while retaining a Lutheran emphasis on “using the gospel.” Hence this study of Pietism is necessary and useful and practical also today.”

Pastor James Langebartels, WELS Pastor and translator of The History of Pietism, WELS does not give the author's name on their website! Heinrich Schmid - author.

The Bethany (Little Sect on the Prairie) Bookstore does not sell the book.

Goodreads has the book, author, Heinrich Schmid, and information.

Schmid wrote The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which made the Appleton Alcoholics shriek in pain because of Justification by Faith.

The Glende gang accused of of "Inuitu Fidei" which translates as The Faith of the Eskimo, then cried out saying "Spelling don't count!" Four years of education at NWC and four more at Mordor - gone to waste.

Heine on Martin Luther

Luther, on the Scriptures, from "Table Talk":

Dr. Luther once said: "Had I known at first, before I began to write, what I now know, that people are so hostile to the Word of God, and determined to oppose it, I should certainly have held my tongue. I should never have been so bold as to attack the Pope and almost all men, and incense them against me. I thought that they sinned through ignorance and human frailty. I did not understand that they purposely kept down the Word of God. But God drew me on in my blindness, just as men blind a horse that he may run the better." 

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A quote from the introduction to a small book of selections from Luther’s Table Talk.

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“One more example may be given of German reverence for Luther. Heine was a Jew by birth, and a religious skeptic, and as a critic he often employed his unrivaled mastery of gibes and sarcasms in sneering away German reputations. But of Luther he wrote: —

“Honor to Luther! Everlasting honor to the dear man to whom we owe the recovery of our noblest rights, and through whose labors we live today! It becomes us ill to complain of the narrowness of his views. The dwarf who stands upon the shoulders of the giant may certainly see farther, especially if he puts on spectacles; but he cannot bring to the prospect the lofty emotion and the giant heart of the other. It becomes us the less to judge his faults severely, as his very faults were of more service to us than the virtues of a thousand others. The fine discernment of Erasmus, and the gentleness of Melanchthon, had never done so much for us as the divine brutality of Brother Martin.”