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| Bishop Hill, Illinois is not far from Moline and Rock Island, where many Swedes came to work for John Deere and organized congregations. |
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| Erin Jansson left Sweden and took many Swedes with him - to Bishop Hill, Illinois. |
The rationalistic Church of Sweden and the plague of alcoholism combined to fuel many separatist movements that led to immigration to America.
Eric Jansson, a layman, used fiery preaching to call out the dissatisfied and start new in America. His group had many of the problems faced by the followers of Bishop Martin Stephan.
John Deere improved on the plow and moved his business to Moline to take advantage of river transportation and hydro to power his factories. Swedish Pietists were encouraged to come to Moline to work in the factories.
Anything but the Church of Sweden looked good to the Swedes as they left. In fact, many joined the Methodists and the Mormons when they arrived. However, the Swedish clergy who came over were shocked by the many extremes of American freedom, such as Bishop Hill, only 47 miles from Moline.
Tiny Augustana College moved around quite a bit until it settled in nearby Rock Island, adjacent to Moline, and began to attract faculty and students. They even had a prep school to get students ready for college. One layman has often remarked to me about the success and academic standards of the Augustana colleges and the low standards and dissolution of the WELS-LCMS schools.
The Pietists took on that new name - Augustana - for the Augsburg Confession, but they never denied their origins in Pietism. Various leaders and Passavant encouraged them to make the Book of Concord their standard rather than continue in the lax attitudes of Pietism.
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| Taking Lutheran doctrine to the Perryville LCMS - donated books. |
That Alien Walther Mythology
Many people wonder, lost in astonishment, about the worship of Walther in the LCMS. Others simply find it repulsive and blasphemous.Clearly, the highest authority for many is not the Scriptures but Walther.
At first, I was impressed by the lies and evasions of the Walther myths, but a lot of details did not add up.
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| Not worthy! We stood beneath the shadow of the Pietist who organized a riot, stole all of Stephan's gold, land, books, and personal items - and kidnapped the bishop to Illinois. "Dream big!" their Church Growth leaders tell the LCMS today. |
Walther is portrayed as the founder of the LCMS, the source of many tall tales. The Loehe pastors invited the Perryville cult to talk with them, where there was no agreement. Then Missouri changed their tactics and unity occurred.
They closed their eyes to pray. When they opened them, Perryville and St. Louis were the founders and Loehists were the disruptive hangers-on. Loehe is still a bad word for the Walther worshipers. Not all Missourians worship CFW, but it is better to pretend.
The Walther circle? - they were all Pietists. They formed around one abusive Pietist guru. When he died, they looked for another Pietist guru and found Martin Stephan - also abusive. The Walther circle identified with cell groups, as all Pietists did, and had them in America, too. Stephan was called to a Pietist congregation, which he turned into a Pietist fund-raising operation for himself.
