Quick Overview - The Great Walther and the Great Barth/Kirschbaum

The first LCMS broadcast: Walther's view of the seal of the confessional.

 Tell everyone, organize a mob, kidnap the bishop, and steal everything for Mother Missouri.

He had the ideal marriage - he let his future mother-in-law go to jail for his kidnapping of his niece and nephew, then left her behind while he sailed off fast to America.

Walther was not a Biblical theologian and he was weak on the Biblical languages. He got the Synodical Conference used to his dogmatic statements which were accompanied by Scripture citations.

Clownish imitation of this wily method came from the Objective Justification faction. Their favorite two citations are Romans 4 - all about Justification by Faith - and 1 Timothy 3:16 - a confession of faith. Their escape path is to use the Atonement, also translated as reconciliation, as synonymous with Justification.

The OJ fanatics have had their Romans 4 and 1 Timothy 3:16 removed from their little quiver of bent arrows. Now they accuse the faithful of not equating Justification and the Atonement.

The Great Barth/Kirschbaum

Barth was completely unequipped to be an academic theologian. A Marxist, he suddenly found himself with a young, beautiful Marxist girl willing to do his work, and I mean all his work, for free. They published a mountain of Calvinist/Marxist nonsense, until she got sick and died. Barth hardly did anything after that.

Barth's wiley method was similar to Calvin's and Walther's. He wrote the large print stuff in their Dogmatics. She did the scholarly work. Some people wrote material as background for him, and Barth simply copied it into his Dogmatics, without giving credit. Their writing was a cover to introduce a Marxist philosophy in the guise of Christian theology.

"Karl, no footsie until the photo-op is done. OK?"

Did Calvin Invent Dogmatics Textbooks?

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/05/blog-post.html

"The Holy Spirit teaches man better than all the books; He teaches him to understand the Scriptures better than he can understand them from the teaching of any other; and of his own accord he does everything God wills he should, so the Law dare make no demands upon him."

Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 280. Pentecost Sunday John 14:23-31. 

 Look at Calvin's Institutes chapters at this link. Remind you of dogmatics textbooks? Barth? Braaten-Jenson? LCMS Dogma-tanic?

Luther and Melanchthon taught directly from the Scriptures. The Reformer himself placed the emphasis on the sermon (unlike today). 

Chemnitz was exceptional in answering attacks on Biblical doctrine - The Council of Trent (his Examination) - The Apology of the Book of Concord (against the Calvinist naysayers).

Gerhard-Chemnitz wrote an enormous Harmony of the Gospels.

1. Listen to a Roman Catholic priest give a sermon. He will say, "The Church teaches..."
2. Matt the Fatt speaks of "The established doctrines of the Lutheran Church [Missouri Synod]..."
3. DP Jon-Boy Buchholz speaks of "established doctrine" - established false doctrine, established only recently, but established nevertheless.

Whether called Systematic Theology (Tillich) or Church Dogmatics (Barth), each effort is an exercise in creative writing. Stan Hauerwas used to say in class, "Watch him make his move..."

One person - or a group - will put together a new publication and a few generations will analyze it, argue for and against, and eventually forget it. How many read Schleiermacher's dogmatics today - Der christliche Glaube (The Christian Faith)?

The Problem with All Dogmatics Books

Every dogmatics book lays down various theses, which either begin the argument or frame how the Scriptures must be viewed - books judging The Book. No matter how good the dogmatics book might seem to be, that is the reverse of what Luther taught, which is exactly what the faithful in the earliest years of Christianity taught. 

Jesus also taught this, as the Apostles do.

 The sects and cults that depart from Biblical truths use the claw machine for their dogma. If a verse alone or a half-verse does not work, they add "add" to the verse (as the NIV does).