A. Berean has left a new comment on your post "Something Absurd - Says Johann Gerhard - UOJ":
Sadly, it does not matter how highly we esteem these men (Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard, et.al.) or what kind of subscription we give to their writings, because as soon as they say something that wouldn't be voiced by today's Lutheran dogmaticians or theologians they are discredited with a statement such as
"well, these men erred in their speech just like anyone else."
"Sometimes they didn't express things the right way."
"If Luther were here today we might sit him down and clarify things."
"Sometimes Luther was just plain wrong." etc.
The same thing goes for the Book of Concord. The "quia" subscriptions of most Lutheran bodies are shaky at best. This is evidenced by their reactions to passages from the Book of Concord. If it does not conform to what is currently taught it is either rejected outright, or the current teaching is read into the passage.
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GJ - Berean is right - and this applies to all the SynCon leaders. Worse, the clergy act as if they do not know this, even though everyone has total access to Luther, Chemnitz, the Confessions, even the most obscure theologians. The lesser known ones, like Chytraeus, are far beyond the current leaders in ability, but he is also ignored.
Besides, dear Berean, the orthodox Lutherans have been slandered by the current leaders as if the faithful ones were exponents of UOJ. Calov and Gerhard and Quenstedt. Someone the early Robert Preus essay on UOJ is canonical and Spirit-anointed, but his last book, repudiating UOJ, is ignored.
I did not understand the depth of the fraud until I looked into the real history of the Synodical Conference. Walther and the other clergy were pimps for a promiscuous syphilitic tyrant. The group engaged in abusive, cultic behavior before leaving the homeland, such as encouraging divorce when a spouse did not want to leave for America, taking on minors (and bragging about it), and kidnapping two minors from the Walther's family home, while grampaw was deathly ill. For good reason the police had warrants out for C. F. W.'s arrest, and they did clap his future mother-in-law in the hoosegow for a time.
Stephan was under house arrest for sex abuse and financial questions until they sailed for freedom, buying up Mormon land in Missouri, where Stephan could also enjoy polygamy.
The Stephanites believed they were the only true Church. When they left for America, there were no Christians left in Europe, they taught. They punished one member who said otherwise - sound familiar?, Sausageans and Misssourians and Little-Sectans.
Yes, they cut off the dissenter's funds until he repented of his false doctrine. Read Zion on the Mississippi for the first time, with ovine eyes wide open. The initial chapters read like a gothic horror novel.
