Did Walther Violate His Own Law and Gospel Thesis?

This is the last image of His Holiness, Dr. CFW Walther.

Daniel Gorman (Heinrich)
Senior Member!


Post Number: 4186
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Saturday, February 08, 2020 - 7:06 am:    Edit Post
Did Walther violate his own law and gospel thesis?

"Thesis XIV: You are not rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel in the Word of God if you demand that faith is a condition for justification and salvation. It would be wrong to preach that people are righteous in the sight of God and are saved not only by their faith, but also on account of their faith, for the sake of their faith, or in view of their faith."

***

GJ - And all God's people said, "Wha-a-a-a-t?"

I left the quotation in neutral green rather than red-zoning it. The LutherQueasies are all experts on Walther, so they say - but know little of Luther and even less of the Scriptures. That catastrophe happens when people make one person the infallible pope and criticism of that pope a sin.

John Bunyan found a copy of Luther's Galatians and made it his "most read book after the Bible." That is why Bunyan has so many great spiritual insights and conveys them so well. His first authority is the Bible - and Luther is right after that. I would wager that most of the serious authors in days past (name any single person) knew more Luther than all the faculties of St. Louis, Ft. Whine, Mordor, and the Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie. Those earlier authors were not necessarily in agreement with Luther or each other, but they knew where to start.

The modernist Lutheran leaders - which include ELCA-LCMS-ELS-WELS-CLC (sic) - have two severe handicaps.

1. The first is their neglect of a precise translation with a faithful text (KJV), 
2. The second is favoring the whackadoodle paraphrases of a butchered text - NIV, ESV, New RSV, New American, Living Bible.
3. One error reinforces the other. No PhD or synod leader will be caught quoting the KJV, so they are easily locked into one form of Calvinism or another.

Let us return to the Walther thesis and its superabundant 

"Thesis XIV: You are not rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel in the Word of God if you demand that faith is a condition for justification and salvation. It would be wrong to preach that people are righteous in the sight of God and are saved not only by their faith, but also on account of their faith, for the sake of their faith, or in view of their faith."

The first error is Walther's dogmatic thesis. His Biblical skills were most absent, and the best parts of Law and Gospel were his Luther quotes. I would not recommend any of Walther's works, except in looking at the dark, confused history of the LCMS.

Notice that Valleskey who never went to Fuller Seminary, used theses to prove that Church Growth was a case of "spoiling the Egyptians." He and his buddies were not pleased this was described as picking figs from thistles. Father Steve Spencer asked me to write that review because everyone else was afraid to do it. The Little Sect leaders went bonkers over that little review in CN.

So let us test if Walther's edict is true.

"You are not rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel in the Word of God if you demand that faith is a condition for justification and salvation."

Through the Holy Spirit, St. Paul used the example of Abraham in Genesis 15:6 to show that faith is indeed the condition for justification and salvation. Abraham did not simply believe he could be a daddy. He believed in the Messianic Promises, in Christ Jesus, as the future through the power of God. And Abraham believed in a kingdom (of God) vaster than the stars in the sky.

Romans 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

According to Phil Hale, the cub editor of Christian News, this is Satanic! "It is satanic that people like Gregory Jackson and Paul Rydecki have used misleading and complicating rational arguments, incorrect biblical interpretation, and misleading historical evidence to make this such a difficult issue to grasp today." Hale even lied about the Kokomo Statements, which were drawn up by a WELS pastor, taken mostly from a WELS Mordor professor, and defended by WELS, yea even by Sig Becker. Hale does as much research as Chris Matthews and Don Lemon combined.

For those who pit faith against grace, a horrible blasphemy, St. Paul wrote - 

Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

"If you demand..." - that is a strange, divisive, and erroneous way to speak of faith, since the efficacious Gospel Word plants faith in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This gift of faith comes from the Spirit at work in the speaker and the Spirit at work in the individual. Gifts are not demanded, but Walther seemed compelled to make faith as odious as possible, in such words as "the shriveled hand grasping the Gospel." 


"It would be wrong to preach that people are righteous in the sight of God and are saved not only by their faith, but also on account of their faith, for the sake of their faith, or in view of their faith."

Walther wrote Law and Gospel, at the end of his life, when he was trying to use Election without Faith to support his Justification without Faith (Stephan-Walther-Pieper-Kokomo). He split the Synodical Conference over his insistence. However, the Missouri Synod continued to teach Justification by Faith for many years.

The Norwegian Pietistic Preus clan went to war with Objective Justification and used it to muscle WAM II out of a leadership position. That is how false teachers work, they ferociously battle to keep the Chief Article from being taught. Maier, who recently died, was not allowed to teach Romans after the Preus-Scaer gang finished.

"...not only by their faith, but also on account of their faith, for the sake of their faith, or in view of their faith."

The Appleton WELS gang condemned me for "Inuitu Fidei," which I gathered was the faith of the Inuits, or Eskimo.

The last phrase is the most common one used in attacking the Chief Article, Justification by Faith - intuitu fidei, in view of faith, or in Appleton, inuitu fidei (the Faith of the Inuits). I do not favor Latin, dogmatic terms, because people get locked into who said what when, largely without even reading the sources. OJists are a lazy bunch, except for their extreme energy in deceiving - they are hopped up for that.

Walther displayed an extreme animosity to faith in this thesis, and his errors cannot be excused or erased. He set in motion the gradual shift of Missouri toward mainline, Left-wing, apostasy. 

Believe it or not, I spent three years studying the past and modern theological works of Roman Catholics, Calvinists, Mennonites, and Lutherans. Four years went into the dissertation on the Social Gospel Movement in the Lutheran Church. Those were the seven PhD classwork, written exam, and dissertation years at Notre Dame. The advantage was not being tied to Holy Mother Synod, so I gained quite a perspective, an unusual opportunity to read endlessly and discuss issues with liberal professors and graduate students. (Example, Roman Catholic friends in the program were disgusted that I believed the Virgin Birth and physical Resurrection of Christ. I even wrote to the LCA seminaries to see if any professor believed in those doctrines. However, one nun in the program said, "How can Luther, who lived 500 years ago, speak directly to me?" My answer was - "Because he wrote directly from the Scriptures.")

When I write that Objective Justification is exactly what the liberal Protestants and Catholics teach today, that is from reading hundreds of books and plenty of scholarly articles over those years.

The quoted Walther thesis is found in this form in modern theology -

"If we include faith as a contingency, if we believe, then grace is no longer grace."

That is contrary to St. Paul -

Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

The Pieper-Watherians are dead set against the Gospel, so they promote their hallucinations over the clear, plain Word of God.

No, they are Left-wing ecumenicals, who love every creed but their own.