Even the Assemblies of God Has Limits - Do Lutherans?

Even the Assemblies of God is having trouble with the New Age, Emerging Church Apostates. Read about it here.

¡No hay huevos!
¡Hay huevos de Pascua!

Justification by Faith Essay - The Plan, So Far, DV

The celebrity theologian Leonard Woods
gave America the double-justification scheme,
which became UOJ - the third rail of the Synodical Conference.
This is Knapp, the Halle theologian and anti-Trinitarian
behind UOJ.

The WELS Church Lady has been applying the lash to get this done. She is not alone. I have put together the background material. The Pietism section is the most important and will be revised the most.

Lutherans need to realize that--by reverse engineering UOJ--we can find the Pietistic, Calvinistic, and Enthusiastic elements in its falsehoods.

Next I am going to deal with the controverted justification passages. Y'all need to do your homework and read the previous material posted. The Synodical Conference MDivs do not know their history of doctrine. Many have not progressed beyond the repeat-after-me style of learning so valued at those sausage factories, so treasured in getting that plum call to Buffalo Chip, Iowa, or Wahwahwaukee, Wisconsin.

Everything will be put together in one file for the readers to pick apart. I am not sure when, but soon. I will post a note about it and you can write me at gregjackson1948@qwest.net. That is my spam email address, which I do not mind sharing. After that, if you qualify, you can have my main address.

I appreciate any efforts made to polish this. No one will acknowledge it, but many will read it. As LP Cruz wrote, it is like radio. It is hard to tell exactly who is listening.

The PDF will be available in two places and it will be printable at Lulu.com.

Later I will have a polished and expanded version. That is why I am calling this small book an essay.

Justification by Faith Essay - Spener, Halle, and Pietism

Spener founded Pietism,
following the cell group method of the Reformed leader Labadie,
a former Roman Catholic.

Pietism – Essay

Jacob Spener
Jacob Spener published his Pia Desideria (Pious Wishes) in 1675 when he was 40 years old. The essay was simply an essay, published as a preface to another book. Heick summarized the proposals as follows:

“It contains six proposals for a reformation of the Church:
(1) a more diligent study of the Bible;
(2) a more serious application of Luther’s doctrine of the general priesthood of all believers;
(3) confession of Christ by deed rather than a fruitless search after theological knowledge;
(4) prayer for unbelievers and erring Christians rather than useless dogmatic disputations;
(5) reform of the theological curriculum with emphasis on personal piety;
(6) devotional arrangement of sermons instead of formal arrangement after the manner of rhetoric.”

Otto W. Heick, A History of Christian Thought, two volumes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966, II, p. 21f.

Heick called Spener the “first union theologian” (HCT, II, p. 23). Spener rejected Calvin’s double predestination but accepted his view of the Lord’s Supper. The Pietists rejected baptismal regeneration (HCT, II, p. 24), so the effect of the movement was to keep Lutherans as nominal Lutherans while embracing Enthusiasm and working actively with the Reformed.

“Spener maintained that the doctrinal difference between the two churches of the Reformation, the Lutheran and the Reformed, was such that it should no longer exclude a mutual recognition in the faith. In this manner Spener and the Pietists in general did the spade work for the church unions of the nineteenth century.”
Otto W. Heick, A History of Christian Thought, two volumes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966, II, p. 21f.

Two additional characteristics of Pietism mentioned by Heick are: 1) chiliasm, a focus upon the endtimes; and 2) an emphasis upon the blood of Christ. One early and important Pietist, Johann Bengel, taught that the blood of Christ was drained from His body on the cross, not reunited with His body, but stored in heaven for the sprinkling of sinners in justification. That is why American Lutheran Pietists have had problems with millennialism and why Pietistic hymns are often so bloody.

“There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”
William Cowper, “There Is a Fountain,” The Lutheran Hymnal. See also “Jesus Thy Blood and Righteousness” by Zinzendorf.

Pietism is a complicated and extensive subject to treat. The movement influenced all denominations in various ways and remains with us today in various ways. Many of our favorite hymns come from the Pietists and the common table prayer, “Come Lord Jesus,” was written by Count Zinzendorf, a man so influential that Halle sent Henry Melchior Muhlenberg to America to counter his influence among Lutherans. This created an ironic situation, where a Pietist was sent to keep Lutherans from following another Pietist. The Muhlenberg tradition in America became the largest segment of the Lutheran Church in America when it merged in 1962. Another significant group was the Augustana Synod, the Swedish Lutheran denomination formed to bring Pietism to America.

Muhlenberg and Pietism
"The pietism and unionism of Muhlenberg and his colaborers was the door through which, in the days of Wesley and Whitefield, revivalism had found an early, though limited, entrance into the Lutheran Church."
F. Bente, American Lutheranism, 2 vols., The United Lutheran Church, Gen Synod, General Council, United Synod in the South, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1919, II, p. 78.

It was not possible to merge all the doctrinally indifferent Lutherans together in the 1960s. The Norwegian Pietists and conservative Germans of the old American Lutheran Church (1930) formed The American Lutheran Church in 1960. Although the German side of this merger was more inclined toward orthodoxy, we can find in Professor Lenski’s excellent commentaries a reference to the issue of dancing, an issue among Pietists. That does not make Lenski a Pietist, but it shows that it was an issue in his group as well. He also wrote books for pastors to use for Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services, also typical of the agenda of Pietism. Although one will now find Sunday and Wednesday evening services expected among the Fundamentalists, it is not part of Lutheran parish planning, except for mid-week services in Advent and Lent.

"Since the age of Rationalism and Lutheran Pietism a new spirit has crept into the life of the church which is un-Lutheran, un-Evangelical, and un-biblical. The Sacraments have been neglected at the expense of the Word."
Walter G. Tillmanns, "Means of Grace: Use of," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, II, p. 1505.



Characteristics of Pietism
One must generalize about Pietism, since its influence has been so extensive and damaging. But generalizing is an effort deeply resented by Lutheran Pietists, because it implies extensive reading, study, and years of experience. If we recognize the undercurrent of Enthusiasm among Lutherans, especially the conservative synods, we can see why rejection of the efficacy of the Word and welcoming the doctrines and methods of Pietism go claw in claw.

A. Cell Groups – lay led prayer or Bible study groups, recently called koinonia, share, care, or home study groups.
The conventicle, as it was called then, was the chief method for promoting Pietism. Claiming that the visible church was dead or not active enough, Pietists gathered to study and pray. The ideal was and continues to be a higher or deeper spiritual life, with an abundance of good works. Such gatherings can be very intense, intimate, and binding. Since the Means of Grace are set aside, prayer becomes the means of grace. The Reformed emphasize prayer groups and prayer as a means of grace, so Reformed material is extremely attractive to Lutheran Pietists. In addition, since these groups tend to be open to outsiders, false teachers gladly participate. One Adventist minister attended a Missouri Synod Bible study group and dominated all the meetings!

When the author warned a Missouri Synod congregation against all lay led cell groups, since they usually are anti-Means of Grace, one woman was very angry. She attended a Lutheran study group and did not see what was wrong with it. Later, she attended the lay-led group and brought up baptism as a sacrament. The leader of the Lutheran group became very hostile and did not want to discuss the topic. Then the woman admitted her anger and what happened subsequently. She said, “Now I know what you meant.” She was impressed by the anger expressed by a Lutheran leader about something so basic to all Lutherans.

WELS Endorsement of Cell Groups
"We probably think first of such groups coming into being in the late 1600s in connection with Pietism. Spener promoted them as a vehicle by which pious laypeople could be a leaven for good in reforming the 'dead orthodoxy' of a congregation and its pastor."
Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 126.

"The point being made here is that the reason for having home Bible study in small groups seems to have shifted from the Pietists' or parachurch groups goal of creating cells of people who will reform the church to having small groups as an integral part of a congregation's work."
Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 127.

Whenever cell groups meet, Pentecostals or charismatics see these groups as fertile ground for promoting tongue-speaking. If one can pray for God’s grace and forgiveness, then how much better would it be to speak in tongues? Every glossalalia salesman acts as if he swallowed the Holy Ghost feathers and all, so innocent people are swindled by the talk of “love” and “Jesus” and “do not let them quench the Holy Spirit.” Many WELS and LCMS pastors enamored of the Church Growth Movement have left Lutheranism to be non-denominational, Reformed, or charismatic.

Whether the cell group is Pentecostal or not, spiritual pride soon sets in. The group is superior to the rest of the congregation, more loving, more generous, and more willing to witness. One advocate for koinonia groups in the LCA said, “ Who was in church every Sunday? The groups. Who showed up for work day? The groups. Who gave most of the offering? The groups. Before we had the koinonia groups, nothing was going on.”

Anti-Means of Grace
"Only little weight is attached to the ministry of the Word, to worship services, the Sacraments, to confession and absolution, and to the observance of Christian customs; a thoroughly regenerated person does not need these crutches at all. Pietism stressed the personal element over against the institutional; voluntariness versus compulsion; the present versus tradition, and the rights of the laity over against the pastors."
Martin Schmidt, "Pietism," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1899.

"The church is no longer the community of those who have been called by the Word and the Sacraments, but association of the reborn, of those who 'earnestly desire to be Christians'...The church in the true sense consists of the small circles of pietists, the 'conventicles,' where everyone knows everyone else and where experiences are freely exchanged."
Martin Schmidt, "Pietism," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1899.

Cell groups are also divisive, because they not only act superior, but also because they set themselves up against the congregation. Many Baptists will admit angrily that they have Sunday School leaders who have never set foot in church for decades and never plan to do so. Obviously, for them, the group is the real church. These words are often spoken by Lutheran Pietists: my church is home Bible study group. The group leader often conducts himself as an opponent of the called pastor. At the very least, the Means of Grace are scorned or diminished in favor of experience, feelings, and the intimacy of the group.

B. Doctrinal Indifference – Life over doctrine, heart versus head religion
Spener’s program made personal experience the norm of the Christian. What someone thought, felt, or experienced was more significant than what the Bible revealed or the Confessions taught. Lack of trust in the efficacy of the Gospel was countered by an anxious need “to witness, to save all those lost souls.” In addition, Lutheran orthodoxy is seen as an enemy of evangelism, as cold and intellectual.

"But a cold heart can beat close to a correct mind. There are too many churches with impeccable credentials for orthodox theology whose outreach is almost nil. They are 'sound,' but they are sound asleep." Leighton Ford (Billy Graham’s in-law), The Christian Persuader. Valleskey askes: "true to a certain degree of us?"
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, Pastoral Theology 358A, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, p. 24.

Lutheran Pietists excuse their love of Reformed doctrine by saying, “Look at all the witnessing I am doing.” Their position is appealing, because it does not require much thought. A handful of their books could be palmed by any adult. Their works are physically and doctrinally light, but long on emotions, appealing to the Me Generation. Their leaders learn to pipe their eyes, as one person described it so eloquently. At the right moment, they burst into tears. One pastor would wipe a tear from his eye, hold it up, and look at it during the sermon. The best sermons at that church were succinctly described in this way, “The treasurer wept.”

As Professor Reu stated so well, doctrinal indifference and unionism are closely allied. One requires or causes the other. Doctrinal indifference is so important to Pietists that they get angry when someone insists on doctrinal standards. The Pietistic rebuke is either, “You are loveless,” or “We all believe in the same Lord. Why can’t we get along?” However, this indifference is also a smokescreen. The Pietists are not ecumenical about anti-Pietists. They will travel over heaven and earth to silence one dissenter, often by personal attacks. Pietists have perfected the art of shunning and excommunication. Many a pastor or lay leader has found himself permanently excluded by these apostles of love and tolerance.

C. The Holiness Code.
The Reformed view of sanctification leads to a list of rules for proving acceptable Christian behavior. The strictest codes bar dancing or observing anyone dancing, all forms of alcohol, including communion wine, all makeup and jewelry, all movies and theatre, girls wearing slacks or shorts, gambling, and all forms of tobacco. Each group has its peculiar variations upon the holiness code, which tends to slacken over a period of time. At first the Methodists were very keen on the code but lax about doctrine. When the Methodists became more liberal, conservatives broke away to form their own denominations, trying to recapture the holiness tradition. Hence, we have such groups as the Wesleyan Methodists, the Nazarenes, and the Church of God.

Sanctification
"This doctrine concerning the inability and wickedness of our natural free will and concerning our conversion and regeneration, namely, that it is a work of God alone and not of our powers, is [impiously, shamefully, and maliciously] abused in an unchristian manner both by enthusiasts and by Epicureans; and by their speeches many persons have become disorderly and irregular, and idle and indolent in all Christian exercises of prayer, reading and devout meditation; for they say that, since they are unable from their own natural powers to convert themselves to God, they will always strive with all their might against God, or wait until God converts them by force against their will; or since they can do nothing in these spiritual things, but everything is the operation of God the Holy Ghost alone, they will regard, hear, or read neither the Word nor the Sacrament, but wait until God without means..."
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article II, Free Will, 46, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 899. Tappert, p. 530.

Germans have formed Pietistic groups, but no German group has ever banned alcohol. One member of a German Canadian congregation remembered the time when the pastor, also the president of the synod, stopped by for a visit and saw the boys playing a game of cards. He said nothing but delivered a blistering sermon on Sunday about the dangers of playing cards. The same pastor had a drink at every home he visited, because it was polite to offer beverages, often home-made, and horribly rude to refuse them. The Augustana Synod banned cards and would have considered one drink per pastoral visit a sign of Satan’s visitation.

One woman made the mistake of having a drink at a company dinner, while seated next to a Fundamentalist, a good friend. She left early with her husband and learned that the engineers turned the gathering into a wild party, crashing another party and getting themselves thrown out. The Fundamentalist had no problem with that. He spent a lot of time condemning the solitary glass of wine the next day at work. “You are a Christian. They are not.” Similarly, he was deeply disturbed by the concept of the Means of Grace. He could not accept the sacraments as anything more than symbolic.

The holier-than-thou attitude of Pietists is seldom hidden away. It may be based on never drinking, never smoking, or always being better than others in certain ways. One member of a Pietistic group told me how they raised a large amount of money for missions, “quietly, in a week’s time.” He left no doubt that his group was superior in that regard to an ordinary Lutheran congregation. And he was a Lutheran seminary professor, with dual church membership.

Proud Pietists
"Another very repulsive concomitant of the Reformed false teaching is spiritual pride. Because those who harbor the conception of an activity of the Holy Ghost apart from the means of grace are dealing in an illusory, man-made quality, they regard themselves, as experience amply proves, as the truly spiritual people and first-class Christians, while they consider those who in simple faith abide by the divinely appointed means of grace, 'intellectualists,' having a mere Christianity of the head; at best, second-rate Christians."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 162.

Some people think that conservative Pietists over a period of time, but instead they simply become liberal Pietists. Being dominated by the Law does not change, but the focus of the Law does. Conservative Pietists condemn alcohol, but liberal Pietists condemn big business, Western democracies, and the Republican Party, while condemning conservative Pietists. Those who wish to understand Pietism should read Walter Rauschenbusch’s swan song, The Theology of the Social Gospel. All the Biblical doctrines are re-intrepreted to deny the divinity of Christ. The book eloquently makes fun of the old Pietists while stating that congregations should be more careful about the kind of person they take in as members. A conservative Baptist church would turn down someone known to be a drinker, but a liberal congregation should turn down someone who is openly anti-union.

At first, in the 1960s, the Pietists of The American Lutheran Church were shocked at the liberalism of the Lutheran Church in America. TALC. Soon TALC leaders launched their own in-house attack on inerrancy and brought their synod up to speed, as they like to say. TALC leaders backed Lutherans Concerned with monetary grants and beat the LCA in declaring altar fellowship with the Reformed. Needless to say, the same TALC leaders became conservative dissenters in ELCA, when they found themselves shunned and rejected for being old fuddy-duddies.

The legalism of the holiness code never ends. Each fad of the liberals is made necessary for fellowship and salvation, but fads quickly become threadbare and boring.

D. Deeds, not Creeds. Anti-Confessionalism and Missions.
The Pietists have long had a slogan, “Deeds, not creeds.” Spener began this with his emphasis on good works, which is in harmony with the Reformed view of sanctification. It is at first gratifying, then terrifying to have people demonstrate outward signs of living a Christian life. Many times, as we can see from the Swedish Lutheran experience, it begins with a voluntary rejection of a damaging aspect of society. In 19th century Sweden, the founder of a temperance society began his work after a drunken fight broke out in his church during the sermon, and the two pugilists were women! The Augustana Synod in America, openly influenced by Pietism and the temperance movement, shunned alcohol. In the 1960s, the dean of women at Augustana College said in a huff, “No one ever drinks alcohol on this campus.” Everyone knew that alcohol consumption was a major factor in dorm life and social events, but no one would ever admit it in public. After the first generation has passed on its rules for Christian behavior, the next generation feels a need to obey it outwardly. Eventually, the legalism is thrown out and the Ten Commandments with them, but the guilt remains. More than one person has said to me, “We have locked up the liquor while dad is visiting. Do not mention it. Do not joke about it. I am begging you.” The same college that officially banned alcohol in the 1960s now supports a homosexual activist group called Lutherans Concerned. Augustana College now has a Roman Catholic priest on its payroll, to serve the Roman Catholic students.

Pietists began the first mission societies, which were ecumenical, parachurch groups. Cooperation went both ways. The Reformed supported Lutheran Pietistic efforts, and Lutherans participated in Reformed works. Needless to say, when so many good things were happening through cooperation, people could not stop and fight over the sacraments and the efficacy of the Word.

Pietists do not like schools. They will say, “Schools are for us. They are not missions.” Pietists close down Lutheran schools to generate more money for missions. The Missouri Synod took the lead in this area, decapitating all their prep schools, which were designed to support church vocations. It helps men to have a head-start in languages by starting Latin in high school, Greek and Hebrew in college. WELS bemoaned the stupidity of the Missouri Synod in closing prep schools and then closed two of their four schools, also in the name of missions. Now both synods have millions of dollars of foundation and insurance grants, but fewer pastors and poorly trained candidates. No matter how intelligent a man is, he will gain far more from seminary if he enters pastoral training without the need to start cold in Greek and Hebrew.

The early Lutheran Pietists were fanatical about studying the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, as Heick’s work shows, but over the requirement for ministers slackens. ELCA candidates enter and leave seminary with a dash of Greek and no Hebrew. ELCA officials admit that their future pastors do not even know the Small Catechism! WELS and Missouri leaders, look at ELCA. That is your future.

Fuller Pietism
Fuller Seminary in Pasadena was formed to teach inerrancy, although its initial position was really quite soft. Nevertheless, the faculty went through a revolution and Fuller adopted an anti-inerrancy statement. When The Battle for the Bible, about Fuller, was published, the author was attacked by Fuller for being “bitter and jealous” that he did not become president. Notice how the amazingly successful president of Fuller Seminary, the late David Hubbard, defined the problem. Like most liberals in the driver’s seat, his words drip with sarcasm and scorn. The words are taken directly from the brochure Fuller mailed the author during a vain effort to recruit him.

The Bible Does Not Consider God’s Word Inerrant
"Were we to distinguish our position from that of some of our brothers and sisters who perceive their view of Scripture as more orthodox than ours, several points could be made: 1) we would stress the need to be aware of the historical and literary process by which God brought the Word to us...4) we would urge that the emphasis be placed where the Bible itself places it - on its message of salvation and its instruction for living, not on its details of geography or science, though we acknowledge the wonderful reliability of the Bible as a historical source book; 5) we would strive to develop our doctrine of Scripture by hearing all that the Bible says, rather than by imposing on the Bible a philosophical judgement of our own as to how God ought to have inspired the Word." David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182.

Inerrancy Misleading and Inappropriate
"Where inerrancy refers to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches through the biblical writers, we support its use. Where the focus switches to an undue emphasis on matters like chronological details, the precise sequence of events, and numerical allusions, we would consider the term misleading and inappropriate. Its dangers, when improperly defined, are: 1) that it implies a precision alien to the minds of the Bible writers and their own use of Scriptures; 2) that it diverts attention from the message of salvation and the instruction in righteousness which are the Bible's key themes;...5) that too often it has undermined our confidence in the Bible we have... 6)that it prompts us to an inordinate defensiveness of Scripture which seems out of keeping with the bold confidence with which the prophets, the apostles and our Lord proclaimed it."
David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182.

Inerrancy Advocates Are Against the Bible and Tick Me Off
"We resent unnecessary distractions; we resist unbiblical diversions… Can anyone believe that all other activities should be suspended until all evangelicals agree on precise doctrinal statements? We certainly cannot."
David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, 91182.

The downhill doctrinal slide of Pietism begins with placing the good works of man above the truth of God’s Word. At every stage of the decline, the Pietists firmly believe that they must tolerate doctrinal laxity in the name of getting more done, for the glory of God, of course. Soon they find themselves helpless to stop the radicalism of the next generation. The last bishop of the Lutheran Church in America, James Crumley, begged his extremely liberal staff not to succumb to the radicalism of the newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Soon, those same staff-members were ousted by ELCA Bishop Herb Chilstrom’s network for being too conservative.

E. Road to Unitarianism. From anti-creed to anti-Trinity.
Pietism begins with the slogan of “deeds, not creeds.” In every case, Pietism has spawned Unitarianism in the next generation or two. The University of Halle was the mecca of Pietism in one generation, the headquarters for apostasy in the next. The American Lutheran congregations most devoted to unionism in the 19th century became Congregational or worse in the next. Fuller Seminary, somewhat conservative but ecumenical to a fault, became an anti-inerrancy school in only one generation. The Augustana Synod blended Pietism from the old country with orthodoxy from Capital Seminary (now Trinity, ELCA, in Columbus, Ohio). Lutheran orthodoxy was taught at Augustana Seminary until the 1930s, when the old faculty was removed at once. The Pietists at Augustana were instrumental in bringing the Social Gospel Movement into their seminary, by calling A. D. Mattson to the faculty.

The original Wisconsin Synod was as Pietistic and unionistic as a Luthern group might be. Many congregations offered both Reformed and Lutheran communion, both Reformed and Lutheran catechism. Some congregations, like St. Paul’s in Columbus, had Lutheran and Reformed in their titles. Many congregations, like old St. John’s in Milwaukee, had Reformed splits in their early days. The Wisconsin Synod, influenced by the great theologian Adolph Hoenecke and the synodical leaders Bading and Brenner, rejected Pietism and unionism, joining the Synodical Conference. However, the Pietists within the Wisconsin Synod were beaten down but not conquered. They lost, too, when the Wisconsin Synod finally voted to break with the Missouri Synod, after two decades of dithering. However, the Pietists did not give up. They quietly networked and got their men into key positions, using training at Fuller Seminary as their uniting force. After years of denying that anyone ever went to Fuller Seminary, even though their own Larry Olson bragged up his D.Min. degree from Fuller, the Church Growth advocates finally came out of the closet and said, “Yes, we love Church Growth. Yes, we love religious projects with ELCA. Yes, we want women to be ordained. Now try to stop us.”
F. Ordination of women.
The ordination of women is a natural step for Pietists, a necessary outgrowth of the cell group. In the cell group, which is anti-Means of Grace and anti-confessional, anyone may serve as the leader.
Women tend to be more spiritual than men, in general, and enjoy taking these position. Cell group method books call them “lay pastors” so there is little difference between serving as a pastor in a cell group and serving as one in the congregation. Although ordination is far more important than the Pietists allow, they have already accomplished their goal when they have women teaching men and women in authority over men in the church.

Historically, women’s ordination has begun with the anti-Christian cults, whenever an alpha female can gather a group together. The Pentecostal groups follow, since they believe the Holy Spirit calls them directly, in their dreams and visions. One Pentecostal woman baptized herself in a bathtub, got her tongue-speaking going by saying “yabba-dabba-doo” repeatedly, and announced she had the gift of preaching, according to her submissive husband.

If we concede the Confessions as being old-fashioned, boring, and irrevelant, even though they are not, and we claim that doctrine is divisive, then there is no particular reason why women should not be ordained and called to serve as pastors of congregations. The Lutheran Church in America took the lead in dismissing the inerrancy of the Scriptures and in teaching the flexibility of the Confessions, so they naturally, as liberal Pietists, ordained the first women pastors in America, in 1970. The American Lutheran Church followed. The ordination of known lesbians and homosexuals followed soon after.

G. Method Actors
Since Pietist rejects the Confessions, the efficacy of the Word, and the Means of Grace, advocates of Enthusiasm must trust in methods. The key to understanding the Enthusiasts is not only in realizing the separation of the Holy Spirit from the Word, but also in seeing the implication of that concept. The Reformed do more than imply what their Enthusiasm means. They teach it quite openly – The Word of God is dead and lifeless without human aid. Here is the secret to cell groups, tongue speaking, the seeker service, entertainment evangelism, friendship evangelism, child evangelism, mission vision statements, and all the flotsam of the Reformed. Why must the ministers pretend to be used car salesmen, talk show hosts, or stand-up comedians? God’s Word is dead without a boost from them to make it appealing and get results. Since they have no faith in the Holy Spirit working through the Word, they measure their success by visible results they can put on a graph. They take people out to their parking lots and tell them how many acres they have paved. That is good news for the Asphalt Association of America, but it means nothing to God, to watch these people clown around and carry on to win the approval of people, who are not even given the chance to hear the saving Word of Truth.

Pietistic Methods
"Pietist preachers were anxious to discover and in a certain sense to separate the invisible congregation from the visible congregation. They had to meet demands different than those of the preceding period: they were expected to witness, not in the objective sense, as Luther did, to God's saving acts toward all men, but in a subjective sense of faith, as they themselves had experienced it. In this way Pietism introduced a tendency toward the dissolution of the concept of the ministry in the Lutheran Church."
Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.

"All those doctrinal questions which were not immediately connected with the personal life of faith were avoided. The standard for the interpretation of Scripture thus became the need of the individual for awakening, consolation, and exhortation. The congregation as a totality was lost from view; in fact, pietistic preaching was (and is) more apt to divide the congregation than to hold it together."
Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.

We might as well start on the bottom with the “holy laughter movement,” also known as the “Toronto blessing.” Pentecostals wore out speaking in tongues, singing in tongues, dancing and slaying in the spirit. They have done every rock version of every spiritual ditty one could imagine. What was left? The minister begins by telling some dumb jokes. People are already set to laugh their heads off. After a few jokes, people begin falling out of their chairs laughing. It helps if the minister does this too. Instead of piping their eyes with tears of contrition, yelling “Glory, glory, glory” on their backs on the floor, they howl and bellow with laughter, with their backs on the floor. This too will fade and become wearisome, although the historical Lutheran liturgy is always uplifting to man and glorifying to God.

Promise Keepers, a cancerous growth from cell groups and Pentecostalism, has also run through its time of excitement, its “movement of the Spirit,” and its roaring high income. Wildly ecumenical and emotional, it offered to bring Protestants, Catholics, and Mormons together in one big hug and cry. Stadiums were filled. Now they are not. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Justification by Faith Essay - Zwingli and Calvin

Zwingli opposed Luther on the efficacy of the Word,
died on the battlefield.


Zwingli and Calvin – Swiss Enthusiasm

Zwingli – Godfather of Swiss Enthusiasm

Huldreich Zwingli was born on New Year’s Day, 1484, so he was a few months older than Martin Luther. In all other respects he was quite different from Luther. Zwingli read many books, but he was never formally trained in theology, while Luther earned a doctorate in the Scriptures. Although many people know Luther’s simple and basic works, they do not realize that he could argue Medieval theology and examine the philosophical terms in great detail. His massive Galatians commentary is an example, where he dealt with the Roman terms “congruent” and “condign grace” for 100 pages.

Luther was not political, teaching with great energy the concept of the two regiments (often called the two kingdoms). Luther saw the foolishness of the papacy assuming secular rule and also using force to advance the doctrines and fortunes of the Church of Rome. Therefore, he asserted that the material regiment should use the sword to enforce peace, punish offenders, and defend the nation. The spiritual regiment should use only the Word to teach the truth and defeat false teachers. In contrast, Zwingli was extremely nationalistic, serving as a chaplain, and ultimately dying on the field of battle with many other armed ministers and patriots, at the battle of Cappel, 1531, shortly after the Marburg Colloquy with Luther.

While Luther was often falsely accused of immorality, the charges invented by an unstable man named Cochlaeus (in The Seven-Headed Luther), Zwingli admitted to affairs while a priest, included one in which he impregnated the daughter of a barber. The slander against Luther continues to be repeated, even though the material has been previously refuted by Roman Catholic scholars, but Zwingli is simply remembered as the Zurich reformer. It is doubtful whether most Lutherans understand the nature of Zwingli’s quirky reformation in Zurich and how it influenced the more refined doctrinal errors of John Calvin, who worked later in Geneva. For instance, a senior at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WELS), when asked in a class on the Book of Concord who was wrong at the Marburg Colloquy, answered with great sincerity that Luther was wrong and stubborn about the Real Presence in holy communion, a doctrinal position rejected by Zwingli.

Zwingli’s theological illiteracy has been reproduced on a massive scale today, even though seminary graduates want to be known as “masters of divinity.” Many conservative Lutheran pastors leave seminary with a shallow knowledge of the Lutheran Confessions, accompanied by an attitude that these documents are outdated, uninteresting, and irrelevant. Unfortunately, most conservative seminary professors are called through their political connections, not because of their scholarly abilities. One seminary professor was called without having a bachelor’s degree! Zwingli is a good example of enthusiasm, since he was vain, untrained, jealous of Luther, and yet eager to publish his religious opinions. Zwingli’s Lutheran disciples are similarly untrained, vain, and jealous of anyone who might counter their glib opinions with the Scriptures and the Confessions.

Zwingli Quotes
"Zwingli said, 'I believe, yea I know, that all the Sacraments are so far from conferring grace that they do not even convey or distribute it. In this, most powerful Emperor, I may perhaps appear too bold to thee. But I am firmly convinced that I am right. For as grace is produced or given by the divine Spirit (I am using the term 'grace' in its Latin meaning of pardon, indulgence, gracious favor), so this gift reaches only the spirit. The Spirit, however, needs no guide or vehicle, for He Himself is the Power and Energy by which all things are borne and has no need of being borne. Nor have we ever read in the Holy Scriptures that perceptible things like the Sacraments certainly bring with them the Spirit.' (Fidei Ratio, ed. Niemeyer p. 24; Jacobs, Book of Concord, II, 68)"
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 132f.

"In what vulgar terms does Zwingli here speak of these sacred matters! When the Holy Spirit wants to approach man, He does not need the Word of God, the Gospel, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, for a conveyance; He can come without them! It must be a queer Bible which Zwingli read."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, trans., W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1928, p. 156.

"Furthermore, consider this: All doctrines of the Bible are connected with one another; they form a unit. One error draws others in after it. Zwingli's first error was the denial of the presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper. In order to support this error, he had to invent a false doctrine of Christ's Person, of heaven, of the right hand of God, etc."
Francis Pieper, The Difference between Orthodox and Heterodox Churches, and Supplement, Coos Bay, Oregon: St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 1981, p. 41.

"Calvin was dissatisfied with Zwingli's interpretation of the Lord's Supper, but his own interpretation was also wrong. He said that a person desiring to receive the body and blood of Christ could not get it under the bread and wine, but must by his faith mount up to heaven, where the Holy Spirit would negotiate a way for feeding him with the body and blood of Christ. These are mere vagaries, which originated in Calvin's fancy. But an incident like this shows that men will not believe that God bears us poor sinners such great love that He is willing to come to us."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, trans., W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1928, p. 185.

"Hence it is manifest how unjustly and maliciously the Sacramentarian fanatics (Theodore Beza) deride the Lord Christ, St. Paul, and the entire Church in calling this oral partaking, and that of the unworthy, duos pilos caudae equinae et commentum, cuius vel ipsum Satanam pudeat, as also the doctrine concerning the majesty of Christ, excrementum Satanae, quo diabolus sibi ipsi et hominibus illudat, that is, they speak so horribly of it that a godly Christian man should be ashamed to translate it. [two hairs of a horse's tail and an invention of which even Satan himself would be ashamed; Satan's excrement, by which the devil amuses himself and deceives men]
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article VII, Lord's Supper, 67, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 997. Tappert, p. 581f.


"I believe, yea, I know, that all the Sacraments are so far from conferring grace that they do not even convey or distribute it. In this, most powerful Emperor, I may perhaps appear too bold to thee. But I am firmly convinced that I am right." [Zwingli]
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950, III, p. 132f. Fidei Ratio, ed. Niemeyer, p. 24;

"Zwingli, who was a moralist and a Humanist rather than a truly evangelical reformer, taught: 'In itself the Law is nothing else than a Gospel; that is, a good, certain message from God by means of which He instructs us concerning His will.' (Frank 2, 312.)"
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 161.

"They [the Zwinglians] divorced the Word and the Spirit, separated the person who preaches and teaches the Word from God, who works through the Word, and separated the servant who baptizes from God, who has commanded the Sacrament. They fancied that the Holy Spirit is given and works without the Word, that the Word merely gives assent to the Spirit, whom it already finds in the heart. If, then, this Word does not find the Spirit but a godless person, then it is not the Word of God. In this way they falsely judge and define the Word, not according to God, who speaks it, but according to the man who receives it. They want only that to be the Word of God which is fruitful and brings peace and life..."
Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 664f.

"The term 'Reformed' has therefore become a distinctive name and denotes all those church bodies which follow the theology and particularly the church practices of Zwingli and John Calvin. It is correct when Lutherans insist that there are three large groups of Christians: the Catholics, the Lutherans, and the Reformed."
F. E. Mayer, American Churches, Beliefs and Practices, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1946, p. 24.

"Luther protested against Rome's soul-destroying teachings and reformed the Church by restoring the pure doctrine of God's Word. Zwingli hoped to reform the Church by abolishing Rome's superstitious practices. Calvin believed that a complete reformation implied two things: First, it was necessary to abolish all ceremonies, even those which were in use in the ancient Church, such as the liturgy, the church year, pulpits, altars; secondly, a truly reformed Church must follow the pattern of the Apostolic Church in all its church practices and adopt the form of church government given to Israel in the Old Testament."
F. E. Mayer, American Churches, Beliefs and Practices, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1946, p. 24.

As Otto Heick has observed in A History of Christian Thought, Zwingli was more of a Savanarola, a political reformer in the guise of a religious leader. Zwingli was influenced by Erasmus and Luther, but he remained a humanist and a rationalist. His literary production is considered impressive in size and quality, but not “monumental.” One does not find standard works of Zwingli as we do of Luther, Calvin, and other religious leaders. However, in Calvin and in all non-Lutheran Protestants, we find the same basic error taught with such relish by Zwingli: denial of the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace. This is not a casual or minor error, but so fundamental that the Reformed return to it repeatedly, like people who must constantly shore up a bad argument. Pentecostals and Baptists refuse to baptize infants, but they are not significantly different from the Presbyterians and Methodists who baptize babies while denying baptismal regeneration.

Zwingli’s thought, as summarized by Heick:
“As the Word of God, Scripture is clear. It needs neither interpreters nor commentators. Tradition is useless, if not downright harmful. Man must be taught by God. Strictly speaking, the spoken or material Word is no means of grace at all, let alone the sacraments.”
Otto W. Heick, A History of Christian Thought, 2 volumes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1965, I, p. 357.

In addition, the confusion between Law and Gospel in Zwingli is magnified among all those who have followed him in error, knowingly or unknowingly. This is another facet of the denial of the efficacy of the Word. In errorists, the Law dominates, so that one is both condemned as a sinner by the Law and also saved through works of the Law. When the power of the Holy Spirit is divorced from the visible and invisible Word, the human mind seeks restlessly for a substitute. Sadly, visible replacements for the divinely ordained sacraments are such demonic tricks as speaking in tongues, giving up an obvious or imagined vice (such as dancing), or observing certain human rites (taking a pledge in front of the congregation). Methods of the Law cannot provide comfort, so additional replacements for the sacraments are sought. Holiness Christians (no dancing, card playing, movies, make-up, or jewelry) become tongue speakers. Tongue speakers turn to the occult, with spirit guides from the Fourth Dimension, as Paul Y. Cho teaches.

Avoid Doctrine of Works
"There is but one way by which the Reformed theology can escape the doctrine of works--by accepting Lutheranism. And the Reformed actually take this step when they, including Calvin, at the last direct those who are troubled by grave doubts of their election to the universal grace as it is attested in the means of grace."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 169.

Lurking in the minds of all Enthusiasts is the Monster of Uncertainty. Roman Catholics ask, “Are we really doing enough?” The doctrine of Purgatory feeds the monster, in spite of good works, daily masses, confessions of sin, monetary offerings, acts of contrition, pilgrimages, and estate planning. The Reformed monster is no less demanding, asking if the Law has really been obeyed to perfection, if enough souls have been won for Christ, if health and wealth are conspicuous enough to impress unbelievers.

From Zwingli we get the plague of rationalism but also its false antidote, irrationalism. Rationalism seeks to explain the Scriptures in such a way that most people can accept what is beyond their limited understanding, as if God did not say, “My thoughts are not your thoughts; and My ways are not your ways.” Trying to make the Creation fit into a scheme of evolution is one form of rationalism, but proving the Six Day Creation with scientific research is another form of the same illness. Making the Word germane or appealing, selling the Gospel, is still another form of rationalism. The Lutheran Zwinglian says to himself, “If I can find out what the felt needs of the average person are, then I can show people that my version of the Gospel answers their felt needs – whether they are lonely, stressed, or short on time. Then they will flock to my congregation. However, I must avoid such downers as doctrinal purity, the historic liturgy, classic hymns, and creeds. In fact, it would be better if I avoid the name Lutheran altogether.” Needless to say, many of these Zwinglian Lutheran pastors have become Zwinglians and atheists.

John Calvin taught "We believe because we are saved," the forerunner to UOJ. [Insight from L. P. Cruz]

John Calvin – The Smooth Version of Zwingli

John Calvin was a second-generation reformer, born in northern France in 1509, when Luther was already a few years from earning his doctorate. He studied at the University of Paris and earned a master’s degree when he was 19 years old. Trained in ancient languages, Calvin published a commentary on the Latin author Seneca, but it did not bring him notice or acclaim. In 1536, Calvin’s Institutes (revised and enlarged in many editions) became a sensation and drew people to him. He was delayed in Geneva, Switzerland, during a trip, encouraged by the Protestant minister G. Farel to stay and help with the work there in 1537. Calvin and Farel were expelled from Geneva, but invited back in 1541. Calvin married but did not have any surviving children. He became a preacher and theologian without being ordained as a pastor, so he had much in common with Luther’s younger associate, Melanchthon, who was also trained in the classics.

Luther died in 1546 and never met Calvin. Melanchthon (1497-1563) was younger than Luther and met Calvin at the Worms and Regensburg colloquies, 1540-41. Calvin and Melanchthon became friends, resulting in Calvin’s firmness affecting Melanchthon’s judgment and doctrine. Melanchthon suffered from a need to bring warring groups together based upon compromise rather than doctrinal agreement. After Luther’s death, Melanchthon was so timid in the face of Roman opposition that Calvin felt compelled to rebuke him.

Calvin, June 18, 1550 to Melanchthon: "My grief renders me almost speechless. How the enemies of Christ enjoy your conflicts with the Magdeburgers appears from their mockeries. Permit me to admonish you freely as a true friend. I should like to approve of all your actions. But now I accuse you before your very face. This is the sum of your defense: If the purity of doctrine be retained, externals should not be pertinaciously contended for. But you extend the adiaphora too far. Some of them plainly conflict with the Word of God. Now, since the Lord has drawn us into the fight, it behooves us to struggle all the more manfully. You know that your position differs from that of the multitude. The hesitation of the general or leader is more disgraceful than the flight of an entire regiment of common soldiers."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 101.

Melanchthon, as heir, to Luther, became the instrument by which Calvinism was secretly introduced to Lutheranism. Most Lutherans do not realize today that Calvin seemed to be Lutheran for many years. We now look back at that period as a time of stress and mutual rejection, but Calvin was considered a Lutheran and willingly assumed that role for years. He was no different from Paul Kelm, David Valleskey, Kent Hunter, or Waldo Werning today, accepting the benefits of being considered a Lutheran while advancing the views of Zwingli.

"For the adoption of the Consensus Tigurinus in 1549, referred to above, cannot but be viewed as an overt act by which the Wittenberg Concord, signed 1536 by representative Lutheran and Reformed theologians, was publicly repudiated and abandoned by Calvin and his adherents, and whereby an anti-Lutheran propaganda on an essentially Zwinglian basis was inaugurated. Calvin confirmed the schism between the Lutherans and the Reformed which Carlstadt, Zwingli, and Oecolampadius had originated."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 174.

Calvin’s Doctrine
To understand the crypto-Calvinist (secret Calvinist) Lutherans, we need to examine the teachings of John Calvin about the Means of Grace. Not surprisingly, some of the most revealing statements come from his booklet, Against Westphal, for the Lutheran Joachim Westphal taunted Calvin for some time, to bring out his actual views. The crypto-Calvinists of today loudly moan about “Christian-bashing,” a term borrowed from homosexual activist, when someone asks for doctrinal clarity. It is easy to see from Against Westphal that such polemical literature is used by God to distinguish between sound and false doctrine.

1 Corinthians 11:18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

It was good for Westphal to annoy Calvin and even better for Calvin to answer Westphal honestly. Similarly, when it was rumored that Luther had given up his Biblical views about the Lord’s Supper, he responded with his Brief Confession on the Lord’s Supper, another superb document. Today, the massive doctrinal indifference in American Lutheranism is a direct result of people studiously avoiding all doctrinal conflict. We lose our spiritual muscle tone through lack of effort just as we lose normal muscle tone from inactivity. The inactive person not only loses the ability to exert himself, but also the will to try. Lutherans have become so lazy and inert that they would rather suffer from false teachers, soul murderers and wife murderers, than object to the most obnoxious heresies in their midst. Pastors fear for their tiny pensions but not for their sheep being attacked by wolves. Synodical professors quake at the thought of returning to the parish, so they promote Reformed doctrine and methods in the name of making their institutions strong, though they are dying.

Lutheran Reformed Union
"Wherever Lutherans unite with the Reformed, the former gradually sink to the level of the latter. Already by declaring the differences between the two Churches irrelevant, the Lutheran truths are actually sacrificed and denied. Unionism always breaks the backbone, and outrages the conscience, of true Lutheranism. And naturally enough, the refusal to confess the Lutheran truth is but too frequently followed by eager endorsement and fanatical defense of the opposite errors."
F. Bente, American Lutheranism, 2 vols., The United Lutheran Church, General Synod, General Council, United Synod in the South, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1919, II, p. 68.

To understand the secret Calvinists, let us look first at Calvin’s doctrine, openly taught.

CALVIN’S DOCTRINE

Calvin wrote well and published his errors over a long span of time. He continued to revise and expand his Institutes of the Christian Religion and completed a commentary of every book of the Bible. Sadly, his Biblical commentaries are bought and used by many Lutheran pastors. This tragedy was encouraged by the Biblical inerrancy wars of the early 1900s. Once Lutherans began to be assaulted by highly educated proponents of Biblical error and contradiction, they turned to highly disciplined Calvinist scholars who had already been through the same trials. Lutherans did not stop to think that Calvinistic rationalism brought Unitarian doctrine to the Presbyterians earlier, while Lutheran doctrine repelled it. Therefore, Lutherans turned to Calvinists as allies against the common enemy of doubt. But using human reason to cure the problem of doubt is akin to drinking brine to slake one’s thirst.

Calvin’s rationalism can be summarized by three foundational errors.
Enthusiasm – Separating the Holy Spirit from the Word.
Extra-calvinisticum – Denying that the finite can contain the infinite.
Double predestination. Teaching that all people are either predestined to damnation or predestined to salvation, God’s “horrible decree,” before or after the fall of Adam. Calvinists are divided on the timing of the decree, which is unrecorded in the Scriptures.
Law Gospel confusion.

I. Enthusiasm
Calvin’s enthusiasm and its effect upon Lutherans is the motivation for writing this book and listing so many citations on the subject. Calvin, like Zwingli, scornfully rejected the Biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit always being at work in the Word and never working apart from the Word (Isaiah 55:8-10). Calvin replaced the Biblical teaching with his peculiar notion of the Holy Spirit working independently of the Word and Sacraments, either before or after, or not at all! The Calvinists are never completely consistent about this, because they believe in preaching, teaching, and publishing. But they take care to deny the efficacy of the Word at every chance, as did their most famous modern church father Karl Barth.

"The means of grace are thus limited for Barth. The preacher descending from the pulpit can never quote Luther and say with joyful assurance that he has preached the Word of God. Of course, he can hope and pray; but he can never know whether the Holy Spirit has accompanied the preached Word, and hence whether his words were the Word of God. To know this, or even to wish to know it, would be a presumptuous encroachment of man upon the sovereign freedom of God."
Hermann Sasse, Here We Stand, trans. Theodore G. Tappert, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1946, p. 161.

Barth, the official theologian of Fuller Seminary, was an apostate who rejected the doctrines of the Christian faith while living from his publication efforts, aided by his live-in mistress Charlotte Kirschbaum. Barth is the epitome of the Church Growth expert: unfaithful to God, unfaithful in marriage, treacherous, vain, boastful, and eager to impose silence on his critics. After opposing the Nazis from the safety of Switzerland during WWII, Barth betrayed his followers in Eastern Europe and kissed up to the Communists. He and his lovely assistant, Charlotte, had been reds all along, as the historical documents show.

II. Extra-Calvinisticum
The haughty spirit that denies the efficacy of the Word will also invent new doctrines. One is called the extra-calvinisticum, Calvin’s assertion that the finite cannot contain the infinite. In other words, the finite forms of bread and wine cannot hold the infinite, the body of Christ. The same declaration makes the two natures, human and divine, united in the one person, Christ, impossible. In fact, both Zwingli and Calvin had serious problems with Christology. Their rationalistic denials of what Christ has clearly promised in the Word and Sacraments led to Unitarianism (Socinianism) of their later disciples.

"...it is exceedingly difficult to prevent this low view from running out into Socinianism, as, indeed, it actually has run in Calvinistic lands, so that it became a proverb, often met with in the older theological writers--'A young Calvinist, an old Socinian.' This peril is confessed and mourned over by great Calvinistic divines. New England is an illustration of it on an immense scale, in our own land."
Charles P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology, Philadelphia: The United Lutheran Publication House, 1871, p. 489.

III. Double Predestination and Limited Atonement
Theological discussions often begin with Calvin’s doctrine of double predestination, which was published in his first edition of the Institutes and every edition thereafter, but double predestination is really secondary in harmfulness to enthusiasm. One can hardly untangle the chaos created by one conflict after another, in opposition to the Scriptures. Double predestination teaches that God decreed a minority saved and a majority damned before the creation of the world, or perhaps after the fall of Adam. Associated with double predestination is the concept that Christ died only for the elect and not for the sins of the world. Anyone who dwells on the core of Calvin’s teaching and applies it consistently must wonder why he would listen to the Word, which is dead, or receive the sacraments, which are dead, when the Holy Spirit will work before or after the Means of Grace but not necessarily through them. A Calvinist must either be proud and secure, since he is taught “once saved, always saved” or he is anxious and fearful that he has been predestined for damnation. The comic-tragic novels of Peter DeVries, such as Slouching Toward Kalamazoo and The Blood of the Lamb, catch this spirit of Grand Rapids Calvinism.

Predestination
"As a matter of fact, however, also in the doctrine of predestination Zwingli and Calvin were just as far and as fundamentally apart from Luther as their entire rationalistic theology differed from the simple and implicit Scripturalism of Luther. Frank truly says that the agreement between Luther's doctrine and that of Zwingli and Calvin is 'only specious, nur scheinbar.' (1, 118.) Tschackert remarks: 'Whoever [among the theologians before the Formula of Concord] was acquainted with the facts could not but see that in this doctrine [of predestination] there was a far-reaching difference between the Lutheran and the Calvinistic theology.' (559.) F. Pieper declares that Luther and Calvin agree only in certain expressions, but differ entirely as to substance. (Dogmatics, III, 554.)"
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 209.

"Calvin and his adherents boldly rejected the universality of God's grace, of Christ's redemption, and of the Spirit's efficacious operation through the means of grace, and taught that, in the last analysis, also the eternal doom of the damned was solely due to an absolute decree of divine reprobation (in their estimation the logical complement of election), and this at the very time when they pretended adherence to the Augsburg Confession and were making heavy inroads into Lutheran territory with their doctrine concerning the Lord's Supper and the person of Christ,--which in itself was sufficient reason for a public discussion and determined resentment of their absolute predestinarianism."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 195f.

"The doctrine of the means of grace is understood properly only when it is considered in the light of Christ's redemptive work (satisfactio vicaria) and the objective justification, or reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, which He secured by His substitutionary obedience (satisfactio vicaria). If


"Waere die Erleuchtung eine unwiderstehliche, wie die Kalvinisten lehren, so waere auch ein Verlieren derselben nicht moeglich. (If enlightenment were irresistible, as the Calvinists teach, then being lost would not be possible.)"
Adolf Hoenecke, Evangelische-Lutherische Dogmatik, 4 vols., ed., Walter and Otto Hoenecke, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1912, III, p. 250.

The Arminians, following Arminius, rejected the double predestination of Calvin. The Synod of Dort established the five classic doctrines of Calvinism, but few of the Reformed believe or teach them. The Arminians emphasize free will instead of double predestination, so they are represented by most Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists today. Although Calvin began the concept of making the Word “reasonable” and “germane,” the Arminians have nurtured that error to the point of insisting on “marketing the Gospel” and using “entertainment evangelism.” Their concept of salvation is no less murky than the Calvinists. The burden of the Law is great on both sides, both the teacher and the potential convert. The teacher must teach in such a way as to win the lost soul, but the lost soul must make a decision, have the right disposition toward God, suffer and yield, and complete the transaction. He may be required to speak in tongues or to give up certain outward vices. Although Calvin was no revivalist, all the errors of the Reformed stem from his errors, since the foundation of Enthusiasm cannot sustain anything except the monster of uncertainty.

"Reformed ministers make the impression that they are trying to talk
people into something instead of telling their people that they have a message
from God, a 'Thus saith the Lord,' which is to be accepted without argumentation
upon the authority of God's Word. This weakens their preaching."
Martin S. Sommer, Concordia Pulpit for 1932, Martin S. Sommer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1931, p. v.

"The crudest extravagances of revivalism (Methodism, Pentecostalism, Holy Rollerism) have their root in this specifically Reformed doctrine of the immediate working of the Holy Spirit.”
"Grace, Means of," The Concordia Cyclopedia, L. Fuerbringer, Th. Engelder, P. E. Kretzmann, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927, p. 299.

"Zwingli, Calvin, and their adherents denied that the Word of God always possesses the same efficacy, and that God always operates through the Word."
E. Hove, Christian Doctrine, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1930, p. 27.

IV. Law Gospel Confusion
Another symptom of Enthusiasm is confusion between the Law and the Gospel. In effect, there is often very little Gospel at all, because the Law is used to reveal sin, but the Gospel is mixed with the Law to offer salvation. When the Gospel includes Law demands, the Gospel is no longer Gospel but Law. This stems from Calvin’s bizarre statements about the Gospel. He claimed that the Gospel slays the sinner, a concept captured in the popular hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.

"Because saving grace is particular, according to the teaching of the Calvinists, there are no means of grace for that part of mankind to which the grace of God and the merit of Christ do not extend. On the contrary, for these people the means of grace are intended as means of condemnation. Calvin teaches expressly: 'For there is a universal call, through which, by the external preaching of the Word, God invites all, indiscriminately, to come to Him, even those for whom He intends it as a savor of death and an occasion of heavier condemnation' (Institutes, III, 24, 8)."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 118f.

"But according to the teaching of Calvinism this 'inner illumination' is not brought about through the means of grace; it is worked immediately by the Holy Ghost. Modern Reformed, too, teach this very emphatically. Hodge, for example, says: 'In the work of regeneration all second causes are excluded....Nothing intervenes between the volition of the Spirit and the regeneration of the soul....The infusion of a new life into the soul is the immediate work of the Spirit....The truth (in the case of adults)[that is, the setting forth of the truth of the Gospel through the external Word] attends the work of regeneration, but is not the means by which it is effected." [Hodge, Systematic Theology, II, 634f.]
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 120.



The Gospel, when properly proclaimed, offers only comfort and forgiveness. The Gospel only makes one demand, that we believe, and the Gospel itself creates the faith it requires.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

BGT John 3:16 Ou[twj ga.r hvga,phsen o` qeo.j to.n ko,smon( w[ste to.n ui`o.n to.n monogenh/ e;dwken( i[na pa/j o` pisteu,wn eivj auvto.n mh. avpo,lhtai avllV e;ch| zwh.n aivw,nionÅ

Where is the demand of the Law in the Little Gospel? Where are the qualifications, the “ifs”? The Holy Spirit does not say, “whosoever believeth in Him and taketh a pledge” or “whosoever believeth in Him and speaketh in tongues” or “whosoever believeth in Him and doeth good works.” Moreover, the Lord spoke of the foundational sin when He was facing His death. The Holy Spirit would convict people of their sin, and the sin is defined. “Of sin, because they believe not on Me.”

KJV John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;

Those who understand the Biblical doctrine of the efficacy of the Word can understand this, but Enthusiasts cannot. For all their talk about the Gospel and conversion, Enthusiasts do not give God the glory but return to what the Old Adam and Satan desire as satisfaction, works of the Law. For that reason, most people see Christianity in America as condemning, legalistic, defined by one set of rules after another. This legalism, which is man-made law, does not make people better but serves to make them worse. They are either thrown into despair because they can never be good enough, or they are proud and spiteful because they imagine they have reached a higher level of spirituality in their obedience to God. Sin is set ablaze by this excess of the Law, whether in despair or in pride.

America is the most legalistic Christian country in the world and also the nation with the most murderous abortion parameters. No other Western democracy works so hard at getting rid of unborn children, from conception to “partial-birth” abortions, which are really murders at delivery. Why is this? The legalism of American, Reformed Pietistic Christianity has made getting caught a greater sin than having a baby born out of wedlock. Pious parents will pay for the murder of their grandchild to keep others from finding out that their daughter is pregnant, or worse, to save money needed in raising a child. Enthusiasts actually reward this behavior by claiming that all aborted babies are in heaven, a claim the author has heard more than once. Thus, one woman phoned into a pro-life radio show to say, “We do not have to worry about the aborted babies, because they are all in heaven.” Murder of the unborn is excused with a rationalistic, extra-Biblical claim, unsupported by all of church history, since the early Christians risked their lives to save the “unplanned” infants who were left in the wild to die.

Law Gospel confusion begins with a reliance upon the Law, degenerates into legalism, and finally collapses into Antinomianism and hedonism. Most people would view the radical left-wing Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as being anti-Law and hedonistic, and that is a fair conclusion. But the ELCA is also extremely legalistic, with its man-made laws changing from moment to moment. Only the most skilled Pharisees can manage to obey the regulation du jour and appear qualified for office. In fact, the legalism of all the Lutheran synods is a testimony to the influence of Calvin and the neglect of Luther. Most Lutheran leaders, especially the conservative ones, do not even realize that they are mouthing Reformed doctrine and methods when they exhort their followers.

Enthusiasm: The Holy Spirit Works Independently of the Sacraments

“Wherefore, with regard to the increase and confirmation of faith, I would remind the reader (though I think I have already expressed it in unambiguous terms), that in assigning this office to the sacraments, it is not as if I thought that there is a kind of secret efficacy perpetually inherent in them, by which they can of themselves promote or strengthen faith, but because our Lord has instituted them for the express purpose of helping to establish and increase our faith. The sacraments duly perform their office only when accompanied by the Spirit, the internal Master, whose energy alone penetrates the heart, stirs up the affections, and procures access for the sacraments into our souls. If He is wanting, the sacraments can avail us no more than the sun shining on the eyeballs of the blind, or sounds uttered in the ears of the deaf. Wherefore, in distributing between the Spirit and the sacraments, I ascribe the whole energy to Him, and leave only a ministry to them; this ministry, without the agency of the Spirit, is empty and frivolous, but when He acts within, and exerts His power, it is replete with energy. ..then, it follows, both that the sacraments do not avail one iota without the energy of the Holy Spirit; and that yet in hearts previously taught by that preceptor, there is nothing to prevent the sacraments from strengthening and increasing faith.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 volumes, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970, I, p. 497. Also cited in Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 119. Institutes. IV.xiv.9.

"The nature of baptism or the Supper must not be tied down to an instant of time. God, whenever He sees fit, fulfills and exhibits in immediate effect that which he figures in the sacrament. But no necessity must be imagined so as to prevent His grace from sometimes preceding, sometimes following, the use of the sign."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 121. Against Joachim Westphal.

“We must not suppose that there is some latent virtue inherent in the sacraments by which they, in themselves, confer the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon us, in the same way in which wine is drunk out of a cup, since the only office divinely assigned them is to attest and ratify the benevolence of the Lord towards us; and they avail no farther than accompanied by the Holy Spirit to open our minds and hearts, and make us capable of receiving this testimony, in which various distinguished graces are clearly manifested…They [the sacraments] do not of themselves bestow any grace, but they announce and manifest it, and, like earnests and badges, give a ratification of the gifts which the divine liberality has bestowed upon us.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 volumes, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970, I, p. 503. Institutes, IV, XIV, 17.

“But assuming that the body and blood of Christ are attached to the bread and wine, then the one must necessarily be disservered from the other. For the bread is given separately from the cup, so the body, united to the bread, must be separated from the blood, included in the cup.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 volumes, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970, I, p. 570. Institutes, IV, XVII, 18.

"We must establish such a presence of Christ in the supper as may neither fasten Him to the element of bread, not enclose Him in bread, not circumscribe Him in any way (all of which clearly derogate from His heavenly glory)...."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 128. Institutes IV.xvii.19.

"Therefore, a part of revelation consists in baptism, that is, so far as it is intended to confirm our faith."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 116. Titus 3:5.

"Baptism seals to us the salvation obtained by Christ."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 116. Comm. Titus 3:5.

"The nature of baptism or the Supper must not be tied down to an instant of time. God, whenever He sees fit, fulfills and exhibits in immediate effect that which he figures in the sacrament. But no necessity must be imagined so as to prevent His grace from sometimes preceding, sometimes following, the use of the sign."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 121. Against Joachim Westphal.

"The offspring of believers are born holy, because their children, while yet in the womb, before they breathe the vital air, have been adopted into the covenant of eternal life."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 123. True Method of Reforming the Church.

Crypto-Calvinists, Then and Now
Before Luther's death, most of the doctrinal battles were against the Medieval errors of Roman Catholicism. After his death in 1546, the errors of John Calvin began to undermine Lutheran doctrine. Calvin's errors, in this controversy, concerned the two natures of Christ and Lord's Supper. What someone believes about Christ will inevitably be reflected in what he believes about Holy Communion. Calvin could not believe that the resurrected Christ could pass through solid walls (John 20:19). Similarly, he could not accept the Real Presence of Christ with the elements of the Lord's Supper. In addition, he separated the work of the Holy Spirit from the Word, so the Sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism were symbolic and not effective in Calvin's thought.
Once again, Melanchthon's unionism, timidity, and lack of honesty played a tragic part in launching the evil Crypto-Calvinist party. His desire for union with Calvin's Geneva and with Rome caused Melanchthon to change his views and try to strike a compromising position somewhere between the truth, Rome, and Geneva.

As early as 1535, Melanchthon harbored anti-Lutheran views, but hid them from Luther. By 1540 Melanchthon had changed the Augsburg Confession to conform with Calvin's views! Many people are still astonished today that Luther's co-worker could alter a confession of the Lutheran Church on his own. That is why Lutheran denominations adhere to the "Unaltered Augsburg Confession" or UAC, as found on church cornerstones. Melanchthon urged his followers to dissimulate, to cleverly deceive, rather than reveal their positions to the pure Lutherans. Modern Crypto-Calvinists, in the Church Growth Movement, also refuse to state their doctrinal beliefs.

"To all practical purposes the University of Wittenberg was already Calvinized. Calvinistic books appeared and were popular. Even the work of a Jesuit against the book of Jacob Andreae on the Majesty of the Person of Christ was published at Wittenberg. The same was done with a treatise of Beza, although, in order to deceive the public, the title-page gave Geneva as the place of publication. Hans Lufft, the Wittenberg printer, later declared that during this time he did not know how to dispose of the books of Luther which he still had in stock, but that, if he had printed twenty or thirty times as many Calvinistic books, he would have sold all of them very rapidly."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 189.

Joachim Westphal was the first to warn Lutherans of the influence of Calvinism. Confusion was caused by Calvin's early agreement with the Lutheran position and Melanchthon's secret conversion. Westphal's polemics brought out Calvin's polemics, which clarified the differences between the two confessions. In Wittenberg, a group of Melanchthon's followers conspired to deliver Luther's Reformation to the Calvinists, not only by deceiving the Elector August that they were faithful Lutherans, but also by driving out the genuine Lutherans.

The Crypto-Calvinists gathered Melanchthon writings into a Corpus Philippicum, with the approval of Melanchthon. The group of writings included Melanchthon's false doctrine and excluded Luther's writings. Those who did not subscribe to the document were deposed and driven out of their church positions. Early success made the Crypto-Calvinists bolder. They surrounded Elector August and convinced him to persecute sincere Lutherans as zealots and trouble-makers. Calvinist books were promoted to such a degree in Wittenberg that Luther's books remained unsold. The theologians craftily published a book, Exegesis Perspicua, which advocated union with the Calvinists, surrendering all doctrinal points to Calvin. Their triumph opened the eyes of the naive Elector, but one more stroke completely destroyed them in their cleverness.

THE CRYPTO-CALVINISTS SELF-DESTRUCT

After Luther's death in 1546, Melanchthon's followers, with his help, conspired to replace Luther's doctrine with Calvin's, at Wittenberg, Leipzig, and across Germany. Their stealth book, Exegesis Perspicua, revealed their dishonesty and allegiance to Calvin. Elector August, a faithful Lutheran who had been deceived by the Crypto-Calvinists, was angered and humiliated. The Crypto-Calvinists added to their fame as liars in 1574, when a Calvinist devotional book was delivered to the wrong person.

"By mistake the letter was delivered to the wife of the court-preacher Lysthenius....After opening the letter and finding it to be written in Latin, she gave it to her husband, who, in turn, delivered it to the Elector. In it Peucer requested Schuetze dexterously to slip into the hands of Anna, the wife of the Elector, a Calvinistic prayer-book which he had sent with the letter. Peucer added: 'If first we have Mother Anna on our side, there will be no difficulty in winning His Lordship [her husband] too.' Additional implicating material was discovered when Augustus now confiscated the correspondence of Peucer, Schuetze, Stoessel, and Cracow. The letters found revealed the consummate perfidy, dishonesty, cunning, and treachery of the men who had been the trusted advisers of the Elector, who had enjoyed his implicit confidence, and who by their falsehoods had caused him to persecuted hundreds of innocent and faithful Lutheran ministers. The fact was clearly established that these Philippists had been systematically plotting to Calvinize Saxony. The very arguments with which Luther's doctrine of the Lord's Supper and the Person of Christ might best be refuted were enumerated in these letters. However, when asked by the Elector whether they were Calvinists, these self-convicted deceivers are said to have answered that 'they would not see the face of God in eternity if in any point they were addicted to the doctrines of the Sacramentarians or deviated in the least from Dr. Luther's teaching.' (Walther, 56.)"
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 190

The sly letter enclosed with the book, from Melanchthon's son-in-law, suggested that Elector August be converted through his wife Anna. August ordered an investigation, which revealed even more intrigue. The Crypto-Calvinists were thrown into prison. August took on a leadership role in restoring genuine Lutheran doctrine. Martin Chemnitz, Jacob Andreae, and Nicholas Selnecker were made trusted advisors to August.

As horrible as the Crypto-Calvinist reign appeared at the time, their excesses and sudden collapse provided a God-given way to unite Lutherans in a common confession. At the Colloquy of Worms in 1557, the Lutherans were divided, thanks to Melanchthon, and the Romanists refused to negotiate with them. Many unity efforts failed, until Jacob Andreae published his Six Christian Sermons in 1573. Andreae's sermons, the collapse of the Crypto-Calvinists, and Martin Chemnitz' leadership all combined to generate movement toward the Formula of Concord.

The Formula of Concord required the cooperation of Andreae, Chemnitz, Selnecker, David Chytraeus, Musculus, and Cornerus. Most people could not abide Andreae, but he was crucial in getting the work started and completed. Chemnitz was the dominant theologian, but the others all contributed significant insights to the Formula, which was signed in 1577. The Book of Concord, which includes the Ecumenical Creeds, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Small Catechism, the Large Catechism, and the Formula of Concord, was completed in 1580.

"In the theological conflicts after Luther's death three parties may be distinguished. The first party embraced chiefly the Interimists, the Synergists, and the Crypto-Calvinists. They were adherents of Philip Melanchthon, hence called Melanchthonians or, more commonly, Philippists, and were led by the theologians of Electoral Saxony. Their object was to supplant the authority and theology of Luther by the unionistic and liberal views of Melanchthon. Their headquarters were the universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig." Chief representatives: Joachim Camerarius, Paul Eber, Caspar Cruciger, Jr., Christopher Pezel, George Major, Caspar Peucer (son in law of Philip), Paul Crell, John Pfeffinger, Victorin Strigel, John Stoessel, George Cracow.
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 102.

"Such was the manner in which the Elector allowed himself to be duped by the Philippists who surrounded him,--men who gradually developed the art of dissimulation to premeditated deceit, falsehood, and perjury. Even the Reformed theologian Simon Stenius, a student at Wittenberg during the Crypto-Calvinistic period, charges the Wittenbergers with dishonesty and systematic dissimulation."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 188.

Crypto-Calvinism Now
"In other words, Zwingli and his numerous adherents declare that the means God has ordained are unnecessary and hinder true piety."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 104.

"Calvinism rejects the means of grace as unnecessary; it holds that the Holy Spirit requires no escort or vehicle by which to enter human hearts."
John T. Mueller, "Grace, Means of," Lutheran Cyclopedia, Erwin L. Lueker, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1975, p. 344.

"The Christian doctrine of the means of grace is abolished by all 'enthusiasts,' all who assume a revealing and effective operation of the Holy Spirit without and alongside the divinely ordained means of grace."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 127.

"Our opponents hold that saving faith must be founded on Christ Himself, not on the means of grace. This reasoning, common to the Reformed, the 'enthusiasts' of all shades, and modern 'experience' theologians, assumes that faith can and should be based on Christ to the exclusion of the means of grace."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 152.

"The specific Reformed cultus, due to the Reformed denial of the efficacy and objective nature of the Means of Grace, represents a quest after the grace of God revolving around human agency and subjective experience. The Lutheran cultus places the grace of God nigh unto the sinner in the Means of Grace."
Th. Engelder, W. Arndt, Th. Graebner, F. E. Mayer, Popular Symbolics, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 21.

"The Reformed are simply deluding themselves in claiming Scripture support for their teaching regarding the means of grace. Their teaching is not derived from the Bible."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 150.

"The doctrine of salvation through the Means of Grace is distinctive of Lutheranism. The Catholic churches have no use for means of grace, for a Gospel and for Sacraments which offer salvation as a free gift. And the Reformed churches, while they hold, in general, that salvation is by grace, repudiate the Gospel and the Sacraments as the means of grace. It is clear that matters of fundamental importance are involved. The chief article of the Christian religion, justification by faith, stands and falls with the article of the Means of Grace. Justification by faith means absolutely nothing without the Means of Grace, whereby the righteousness gained by Christ is bestowed and faith, which appropriates the gift, is created."
The. Engelder, W. Arndt, Th. Graebner, F. E. Mayer, Popular Symbolics, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 4f.

"This downplaying of the importance of the means of grace on the part of many in the Church Growth Movement would seem to stem from several factors."
David J. Valleskey, "The Church Growth Movement: An Evaluation," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1991 88, p. 105. Holidaysburg, 10-15-90.
"Observe, then, the depreciative, contemptuous, and scorning ring in the words of the Reformed when they speak of the sacred Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments, and the grand majestic ring in the words of the Lord and the apostles when they speak of these matters...The true reason for the Reformed view is this: They do not know how a person is to come into possession of the divine grace, the forgiveness of sin, righteousness in the sight of God, and eternal salvation. Spurning the way which God has appointed, they are pointing another way, in accordance with new devices which they have invented."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, trans., W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1928, p. 152f.

Luther: "True, the enthusiasts confess that Christ died on the cross and saved us; but they repudiate that by which we obtain Him; that is, the means, the way, the bridge, the approach to Him they destroy...They lock up the treasure which they should place before us and lead me a fool's chase; they refuse to admit me to it; they refuse to transmit it; they deny me its possession and use." (III, 1692)
The. Engelder, W. Arndt, Th. Graebner, F. E. Mayer, Popular Symbolics, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 5.

“The Fuller professors are Christians. We can learn from them, too.”
David Valleskey

"On the other hand, the enthusiasts should be rebuked with great earnestness and zeal, and should in no way be tolerated in the Church of God, who imagine [dream] that God, without any means, without the hearing of the divine Word, and without the use of the holy Sacraments, draws men to Himself, and enlightens, justifies, and saves them."
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article II, Free Will, 80, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 911. Tappert, p. 536.

"And it is of advantage, so far as can be done, to adorn the ministry of the Word with every kind of praise against fanatical men, who dream that the Holy Ghost is given not through the Word, but because of certain preparations of their own, if they sit unoccupied and silent in obscure places, waiting for illumination, as the Enthusiasts formerly taught, and the Anabaptists now teach."
Article XIII, The Sacraments, 13, Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 311. Tappert, p. 213.

"Dr. Luther, who, above others, certainly understood the true and proper meaning of the Augsburg Confession, and who constantly remained steadfast thereto till his end, and defended it, shortly before his death repeated his faith concerning this article with great zeal in his last Confession, where he writes thus: 'I rate as one concoction, namely, as Sacramentarians and fanatics, which they also are, all who will not believe that the Lord's bread in the Supper is His true natural body, which the godless or Judas received with the mouth, as well as did St. Peter and all [other] saints; he who will not believe this (I say) should let me alone, and hope for no fellowship with me; this is not going to be altered [thus my opinion stands, which I am not going to change]."
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article VII, Lord's Supper, 33, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 983. Tappert, p. 575.