Rest in Peace - John Warwick Montgomery - Lawyer, Scholar, Librarian

 

LutherQuest found this 12 year old post about Montgomery on Ichabod.

Christina and I had lunch with John Warwick Montgomery, at the 1982 Chicago Inerrancy Conference. Robert Preus spoke and Kurt Marquart was also there. The last time I looked, Montgomery still promoted Objective Faithless Justification. However, Robert Preus taught Justification by Faith in his last book, Justification and Rome, in spite of its feeble editing by two of the Preus' sons.

Someone will have to produce a book, essay, or jeremiad about Montgomery. He was prolific in earning degrees and writing books. We kept in touch for a period of time, and he bought a bunch of my books, postage free. He said, "You did mean postage free." Yes, I did. 

He fostered my exit from apostate Lutherdom. I served an LCA church where one member asked me if I could use some books. He did the cleaning at a Missouri Synod  church where the pastor quit the ministry and left a truckload of books and journals behind. They filled the tables in the donuts and coffee area of my congregation. Christina suggested we give them away to members and anyone else, so we spread them out over the tables. I kept a few.

One book was about the weakness of current denominations, and Montgomery repudiated the errors of Lutherdom. Another author in that book was a missionary to Africa, and I knew him from his preaching at my home church in Moline. The missionary taught faith in Christ, and Montgomery pointed out the errors of modernism.

John Lawrenz

In other news, John Lawrenz, - WELS high school principal, temporary college president, and overseas missionary - died at the age of 81. He was one of the very few Wisconsin clergy who had a legitimate, academic PhD. However, he did not venture far from the cookie-cutter style of his synod.

John Lawrenz

Voelz Unleashes the Eighth Commandment on Hale and Montgomery. Edited for Clarity

The November 30, 2020 issue of Christian News has a front-page, above the fold response from James Voelz. Professor Voelz' Gospel of Mark commentary follows the thinking of modernists in ending the Gospel at Mark 16:8. Ha! Voelz' provost at the seminary, Kloha, had the same opinion.

Voelz is deeply offended that Hale and Montgomery would disagree with him, the man who was a student at Concordia Seminary during the Seminex repudiation of the Scriptures. Therefore, he has accused them of slander, violating the Eighth Commandment.

 "He served as an adjunct faculty member of Kenrick Seminary, the Roman Catholic diocesan seminary in St. Louis, from 2009 to 2014."


--

Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae: Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus, exsules, filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis, post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens: O pia: O dulcis Virgo Maria. Translation: Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley, of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus; O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary. website: www.kenrick.edu/convivium Kenrick-Glennon Seminary 5200 Glennon Dr. Saint Louis, MO 63119 http://kenrick.edu/

Instead of offering a concise defense of his position, Voelz waved the bloody shirt (a term from the Civil War soldiers - from the North - who always talked about their service). We are supposed to agree that Voelz did not fall prey to Seminex, Seminary President John Tietjen, and others like Richard Jungkuntz, Objective Justification advocate and Seminex hero.

But the commentary is the best argument against his case. Rejecting the ending of Mark has always been considered a mark of rationalistic apostasy. Let us have a look at the cover.

Why is another person writing the ending of Mark? 
The cover itself is evidence of the Seminex victory.

Voelz:

"Second, contra Luther’s explanation to the 8th Commandment, you have consistently put the worst—not the best—construction on everything being considered."

Voelz stopped reading Luther before and without the Large Catechism? Perhaps he needs to go back to school. Published false doctrine is not immune to criticism and it is not a violation of the Eighth Commandment.

In fact, Paul says there must be divisions, to separate the good from the bad.

Voelz, CPH, and the LCMS clearly deny the traditional ending of Mark's Gospel. So, instead of Voelz being a martyr and saint of the Olde Synodical Conference, he is really an apologist for the apostates.

I will deal with the ending of Mark (as I did before in Thy Strong Word) in Attempted Murder: Broken Biblical Foundations and Corrupt Translations.

If Voelz and I added up our earned degrees, we would still be short of Montgomery's!

The current controversy is something Pastor Otten pursued.

Rejecting the end of Mark has been the hallmark of Biblical apostates ever since Wescott and Hort issued their own Greek New Testament, 1881. 

The apostates have owned this peculiar and broken New Testament ever since. Their la-dee-dah attitude toward the text is abundantly testified in their awkward, wooden, and bizarre translations, including the WELS copy-and-paste EHV (nicknamed by an engineer - Extra High Voltage) paraphrase.

Almost all Bibles on sale agree with Voelz, because they agree with the radical butchering of the Greek New Testament text started by Wescott/Hort and continued by Nestle/Aland.

Mockery of the text (lower criticism) was the foundation  has ever since been the foundation and excuse for the Historical-Critical Method (higher criticism) of the Scriptures.

Testing John Johnson, an earlier president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, I asked him - "What do you think of Switzerland's Karl Barth?" He responded like Ellie to Elvis' music, almost gurgling in appreciation, until he saw me taking it in. Then he changed the subject.

First of all, Concordia in St. Louis and Ft. Wayne are held captive by the rationalistic Calvinism of their hero CFW Walther.

The irony is that no one is allowed to criticize Church Growth and Fuller Seminary in the LCMS - and - that studying at Fuller is the best way to get ahead in the LCMS.

Another irony of Missouri is - the aspiring Synod President must court Christian News to win the office, but no one else has permission to be friends with CN. That changed with the death of Pastor Herman Otten.

John Warick Montgomery - 82nd Birthday

Dr. Montgomery and his wife Lanalee;
he is world famous for his apologetics and his work as a lawyer
defending the rights of Christians.

In the 1970s, I wondered what was so wrong about the Lutheran Church - and it was not Lutheran doctrine.

I received boxes of books from an ex-pastor, ones he threw out. One was edited by John Warwick Montgomery. Not only that, the book included an essay by a missionary I knew, one I heard preach at Salem in Moline. That began our family exodus from mainline apostasy. Happy 82nd Birthday, Dr. Montgomery. God's blessings upon your work.

The two-volume set was - Crisis in Lutheran Theology: The Validity and Relevance of Historic Lutheranism versus Its Contemporary Rivals, two volumes, Baker Book (Grand Rapids), 1967, 2nd edition, Bethany Fellowship, 1973.

The set explained the departure from teaching Biblical inerrancy, and it included an essay by African missionary Faust, who preached at my home church. Faust was related to a long-time friend, Snortin' Norton, whose son went to Augustana College with us.

http://www.jwm.christendom.co.uk/

Montgomery was ordained in the LCA and moved over to the LCMS. but Missouri was still quietly embracing what he imagined he was leaving behind - much like today's WELS-ELS-LCMS.

He served as a librarian, professor, book author and editor - and he became a lawyer, founded a school for Christian apologetics, entered the realm of international law, etc.

My wife and I met Dr. Montgomery at the Chicago Inerrancy conference, about 1978, so I told him about his book's influence. Later he was kind enough to buy all my books as they came out, which was quite encouraging.

He could have played it safe in the Lutheran Church, one more capon strutting about, but he dealt with issues and ideas - both forbidden in the stygian darkness of mainline churches.

Happy Birthday, Dr. John Warwick Montgomery. American Lutheranism Went To Pot When You Moved To Europe

Dr. Montgomery is licensed to practice law
in England, Wales, France,
California, DC, and the US Supreme Court.

John Warwick Montgomery earned doctorates in theology at the University of Chicago and at Strausberg. He has earned 10 degrees in all. His academic progress seemed to accelerate as he moved along. He graduated from Hamma Divinity, LCA, and taught at Waterloo Lutheran University, where I went to seminary. I believe he was the professor at WLU who nailed a famous speaker to the floor by a series of questions that led the poor Leftist to admit the opposite of what he had just tried to teach. I was awed by that and later concluded it could only have been Montgomery.

He worked with Walter Martin, a noted defender of the Christian faith. At some point he read the works of Lutheran orthodoxy and left the LCA. I know he investigated joining the Little Sect on the Prairie, but they are notoriously allergic to earned degrees and academic merit.

Montgomery has published more books than an entire faculty and practiced law in defense of the rights of Christians. My wife and I had lunch with him at the Chicago Inerrancy Conference, where we were leaving the LCA. It seems like yesterday.

(One LCMS pastor at that conference, who knew Al Barry as a district president, said, "Barry will do nothing about doctrine as the Synod President, because he has done nothing here, even when the facts were put before him.")

Montgomery meddled with my life much earlier than the Chicago Inerrancy Conference, which was probably about 1987. I was in Sturgis, Michigan, inheriting an entire library of books from a Missouri pastor who suddenly left the ministry. The books were being tossed away, so a member brought them to me - cartons and cartons of them. I gave many away to various people, including my dissertation advisor at Notre Dame, John Howard Yoder.

One book was a two-volume work, edited by Montgomery,  about the decline of the Lutheran Church. One of the contributors was an LCA missionary by the name of Faust. We knew his son at Augustana, and Pastor Faust was related to my father's best friend, aka Snortin' Norton, whose son was also an Augustana classmate. There are no degrees of separation in the Lutheran Church.

The Faust essay really struck home, because that was a man I knew, someone who preached at Salem in Moline, the congregation where I was confirmed. I read the book, which confirmed my suspicions about the departure of the LCA from the Biblical foundations of the Christian faith.

That thrown-away book began my movement out of the LCA, where only one side was ever presented.

But there is another connection besides. I included Montgomery on my mailing list for Martin Chemnitz Press, long ago. He was kind enough to order all my books. I said free shipping with large orders, and he availed himself of that discount. I recall the note on his order.

American Lutherans did not take advantage of Montgomery's vast learning. He said on his Facebook page:

At the same time, in the States, I find that a fair number of churchy Protestants, including evangelicals, think that salvation is a matter of leading the right kind of life, being sanctified, manifesting spiritual gifts--rather than relying on the sufficient sacrifice of Our Lord on the Cross . . . (To clarify, we live in the French Alsace, where Lutheranism is predominant.)
I went back to check on that page and saw that Moline classmate Michael Bauman, Hillsdale College, also wished John a happy birthday. Bauman is also involved in apologetics.

Montgomery is a prime example of a man who has dedicated his life to arguing the truth, no matter what.

---

narrow-minded has left a new comment on your post "Happy Birthday, Dr. John Warwick Montgomery. Ameri...":

The pastor in Barry's district was certainly correct. Although he talked "confessional" and was correct on the social issues, Barry allowed CG and the Charismatic movements in the LCMS.

Steadfast UOJers, Walther Quest, and the rest of self-proclaimed "confessionals" are now happy because they once again have their guy on the SP Throne. This just goes to show that political power is more important than being truly Lutheran. I predicted two years ago that Mustachio Matt would be a repeat of Barry.

Instead of schmoozing with and aping the Methobapticostals under Kieschnick, the LCMS will now favor schmoozing with Rome/Constantinople. Be it "follow the bouncing ball on the screen" praise bands, or bells and smells, it doesn't matter as long as we're ABL (Anything but Lutheran).

Are Babtists ashamed of being Baptist? Are Methodists ashamed of being Methodist? The ECUSA, despite their imminent demise, is proud to be ECUSA. Rome and Constantinople don't apologize much. Why does the "Lutheran" SynCon seemed to be ashamed of being Lutheran?

Given the history and the establishment of the SynCon, I guess I shouldn't be shocked. Pietism is truly our default religion.

***

GJ - Given the enrollment of SynCon leaders, the promotion of those graduates from heretical seminaries, and the adoption of their idiotic ideas, it is difficult to imagine how the LCMS, WELS, or ELS could criticize anyone about anything.

When the LutherQuest (sic) bunch was jumping on me for synodical memberships, I pointed out that their hero, Al Barry, started in a church basement seminary in the Twin Cities, went to Bethany Seminary in Mankato, vicared in WELS, and became LCMS. However, those facts never emerge in his Concordia Historical Institute bio.

Liars  do not give up their lying habits.