One of my students, ready to graduate, said, "What synod are you?" I said, "You are Lutheran, aren't you?" He denied it three times.
Non-Lutherans ask, if they know us fairly well, "What syNOD?" Only a trained Lutheran would say, with proper pronunciation, "What synod?"
Later he admitted to being raised Missouri Synod. He has served as a lay-pastor in a Pentecostal denomination. Many people tell me they used to be Lutheran, and this is definitely not a Lutheran town. Phoenix has the second-largest concentration of Mormons in America.
Why are there so many former Lutherans? The whining about verbatim quotations on Ichabod may give a clue.
Objections to quotations fall into two categories, both covered by the iconic prayer portrayed above:
1 - Do not quote the great Lutheran theologians of the past.
2 - Do not quote the apostate Lutheran leaders of today.
The Scriptures are plain and simple to comprehend. They have the power of the Holy Spirit to convert and to sustain faith. Unfortunately, people have battled to obscure the meaning of God's Word.
One cause is the promiscuous publication of Bible translations.
Another cause is the fog of Biblical interpretation, created by the last century of unbelievers who could find no other job than teaching the Scriptures to innocent seminarians.
The most destructive is the promotion of a union theology which dare not speak its name. Recessional Lutherans have spent the last 30 years leading people out of the faith via a cynical, discount Reformed-Pentecostal marketing strategy or a mystical and deceitful Roman/Eastern Orthodox confidence game. Either way, the duped are made to feel the real Church is anything but the Lutheran Church. But this goes under the banner of Confessional Lutheranism.
Luther properly identified the danger of all false doctrine in taking away from the glory of God, the clear message of the Scriptures. Can anything be more Satanic than taking people's attention away from God at work in the Means of Grace and getting them to focus on organizational strategy?
One WELS circuit pastor, driven out of the ministry by his brothers, said this, "We used to be a well run group of people. We never talked about the organization. Now that is all we talk about and the synod is falling apart." His sin against the Holy Spirit (from the Wisconsin perspective) was being mildly critical of the Church Growth Movement. His years of faithful service counted for nothing.
As long as the organization comes first, any lie is better than facing the truth. One WELS pastor wrote to say that he learned about his district, thousands of miles away from me, by reading my doctrinal bulletins. "You know more about what is happening a few miles away from me than I do." Rather than deal openly with the cause of multiple lawsuits and statutory rape by church workers, the district concealed the truth from everyone.
District Pope Robert Mueller said, at an official meeting, "If I tell the congregation that they are calling an adulterer, they don't want him." He was excusing his deceptions. A layman was astounded. "You don't tell them?" Later, Mueller complained about the need to certify that his clergy were not sex offenders. Psst - there is something in the Bible about that. Several places, I think.
As long as people think their job is to make the organization strong and prosperous, they can be led to and fro in error's maze confounded. Strangely, the Episcopalians have seen the light and reacted, with far more courage than can be found among the Lutherans. Bishops, usually the most timid of clergy, are leading groups of congregations away from apostasy.
Lutherans have lost their trust in the pure Word of God. They have lost track of their own theologians.
I estimate there are three approaches to the Book of Concord.
ELCA indifference - Oh yeah, this Book of Concord thing. I have the new edition.
LCMS/WELS/ELS rabbit's foot. I read it a little once. Had to in seminary. Not relevant today. Yes, we have a kiwi subscription to it. Quia? Oh, forgot. Yes, not a tennis subscription. Quatenus? Whatever.
The Great Discovery. Some have found that the Book of Concord deals with the great spiritual issues of all time. The Book of Concord is a one volume collection of Biblical exposition, the clearest possible teaching about God's Word. The Book of Concord collects the ancient confessions (Ecumenical Creeds) Luther's writings (Small and Large Catechisms, Smalcald Articles), Melanchthon's (Augsburg Confession and the Apology, Treatise), and the Concordists (Formula of Concord and the Book of Concord itself).
