|
The October 2003 issue of “For The Life Of the
World,” published by Concordia Theological Seminary,
Fort Wayne
,
Indiana
, is nothing more than a polished distortion and misrepresentation of C. F.
W. Walther’s contribution to the LCMS.
They publish 12 glowing pages about Walther’s
achievements without mentioning his struggle to promote voters’
assemblies, voter supremacy, congregational self-government, congregational
autonomy, the authority of the congregation, nor do they list the titles of
his most significant books, “Church and Ministry,” “The True Visible
Church On Earth,” and the “The Form of a Christian Congregation.”
Yes, they praise Walther for his “Law and Gospel,”
but Walther was only quoting Luther.
Talking about Walther without describing the struggle
for congregational self-government in
America
is like talking about Luther without mentioning the abuses of the Pope and
the Catholic Church.
In 2001, the LCMS Convention adopted Resolution 7-17A “To Affirm Synod’s
Official Position on Church and Ministry.” By a 73% majority, the
Convention voted that Walther’s “Church and Ministry” continues to be
the official position of the LCMS.
Why doesn’t
Fort Wayne
want to teach and promote what Walther taught and promoted?
Two of the four writers of articles in the Oct. 2003
issue, have earned doctorates in history but fail to mention Walther’s
most significant work. How could
they, when the Fort Wayne Faculty voted not to answer if it agreed with the
following quotations from Walther in April of 2000?
“Finally the congregation is
represented as the SUPREME TRIBUNAL, Matt.18:15-18....” (Form of the
Christian Congregation, C.F.W Walther, CPH, St. Louis, 1989, p.24)
“In public church affairs nothing
should be concluded without the vote and consent of the congregation.”
(Form of the Christian Congregation, C.F.W Walther, CPH, St. Louis, 1989,
p.48)
Fort Wayne
’s magazine makes no mention of Walther’s blind submission to the
tyrannical Romanist, Martin Stephan, who claimed that the pastor was the
head of the congregation and the chief mediator of the Means of Grace.
There was no mention of Walther’s astonishing
wakening to his error and conversion to become the most articulate proponent
of congregational self-government since Luther.
There was no mention of Walther’s victory at the
Altenburg
,
Missouri
Debate on April 15 and 20, 1841. It
was there Walther convinced the German colonists that the Bible gave them
the authority to form their own congregations, call and ordain their own
pastors, and govern their own congregations, which led to the creation of
the LCMS.
Walther considered
his victory at
Altenburg
the most significant event in Lutheranism since 1519.
Walther
writes: “I do not hesitate to say that as important as the Leipzig Debate
of 1519 was for the cause of the Reformation, so important was the Altenburg
Debate for the development of the polity of the
Lutheran
Church
of the West.” (Mundinger,
“Government in Missouri” CPH, St. Louis, p. 114)
There was no mention that Walther was the first to
actually lead a Lutheran Church body to adopt Luther’s revolutionary
document, “That a Christian Assembly or
Congregation Has the Right and Power to Judge all Teaching and to Call,
Appoint, and Dismiss Teachers, Established and Proven by Scripture” as the
official structure for its congregations.
(Luther’s Works Vol. 39:305-314)
Why were Walther’s most significant contributions left
out of
Fort Wayne
’s publication that claims to pay homage to Walther?
The answer is, that most of the faculty at
Fort Wayne
, including its president, are opposed to Walther’s teaching about
congregational self-government and falsely believe that the pastor is equal
to or is a higher authority than the Voters’ Assembly.
Left
to their own desires the
Fort Wayne
faculty would lead the LCMS into the same kind of Episcopal Hierarchy now
practiced in the ELCA.
Am
I wrong? Then let President
Wenthe and the Faculty publish that they whole-heartedly agree with and
teach the following quotations from Walther’s “Church and Ministry”
adopted by the 2001 Convention:
“For when our Savior Christ
says, ‘Tell it to the church,’ He by these words commands the church
[local congregation] to be the supreme judge.
From this it follows that not only one state, namely that of the
bishops, but also other pious and learned persons from all states are to be
appointed as judges and have decisive votes.”
(“Church and Ministry" C.F.W. Walther, 1851, CPH 1987, page
343)
“This is to be understood
in the sense not only that the church has the power to excommunicate
impenitent sinners but also that the congregation has the supreme authority
in all church matters such as reproof, church discipline, divisions, judging
doctrine, and appointing pastors, to mention only these things”
("Church and Ministry." C.F.W. Walther, 1851, CPH 1987, page 343)
“For when a certain school
principal in
Brunswick
held an erroneous doctrine and among other things
also rejected the Formula of Concord,
Chemnitz
presented the matter to the whole congregation as
to the final and supreme judge.” ("Church and Ministry" C.F.W.
Walther, 1851, CPH 1987, Page 343)
President Wenthe will never
publicly support the above statements as the correct practice for all LCMS
congregations because he does not agree with Walther’s congregational
polity for the LCMS. Wenthe
should resign.
While Fort Wayne continues to
misrepresent Walther’s “Church and Ministry” to the LCMS, we
appreciate President John Johnson’s approval for The Fifth National Free
Conference on C. F. W. Walther to be held on its campus on Nov. 7-8, 2003,
WALTHER
CONFERENCE INFORMATION
|