The Editor
Christian News
3277 Boeuf Lutheran Road
New Haven, MO 63063
Sir:
Before "illustrating" the alleged "Loehe bias at the seminaries"
(J. Cascione, CN 2 Oct. 2000) one should first prove it. I for one have made it a point
both in print and in the classroom to refute Loehe's aberrations at the points where he
departs from the standard Lutheran doctrine defended by Walther.
If Loehe seems more attractive to some-and unfortunately there are romantic illusions
along those lines-perhaps that is because Walther is often made into a Halloween
scarecrow, by friend and foe alike! I hope that the forthcoming Walther Conference (a
worthy idea!) will help to rehabilitate the real Walther, and to debunk the misreading and
falsehoods, which have grown like weeds round his name. Two examples for now:
One is the absurdity-maintained; for instance, by P. E. Kreztmann-that only the
head-pastor holds the one divinely-instituted pastoral office, and that assistant pastors
are in an auxiliary office, like elders and Sunday-School teachers! Another is the fantasy
that "Synod is not church," and therefore does not govern free Christian
consciences with the truth of the divine Word and the orthodox Confessions, but oppresses
them with the man-made rules and regulations of a so-called "covenant of love"!
Nothing could be farther from Walther's churchly vision, but it is regularly trotted out
as if it were his very last will and testament!
And then there is Pr. Cascione's favorite war-horse, "Voter Supremacy." This
misunderstanding confuses Law and Gospel. In the civil, legal realm, of course the
majority prevails. But in the spiritual, evangelical realm of the church, things are done
by common submission to God's Word or by mutual consent in love, fittingly expressed by
vote. God is not a Bolshevik (Russian for member of the majority)! He cares nothing about
majorities or minorities-only about His truth and love, and our salvation.
Pr. Cascione's "freedom to do the wrong thing" belong in the temporal, not
the spiritual sphere. All of us Christians have both spirit and flesh, new nature and old
nature. Yes, we daily sin and need forgiveness-but there is not "right to do
wrong"! Because Walther understood that, he insisted that a congregational decision,
even if unanimous, was null and void if it violated the Word of God, there is some analogy
to this in the American constitutional system: if something is unconstitutional, then any
attempt to enforce it, whether by legislatures, sheriffs, or armies, has no legal force or
standing, and must be resisted. When one must resort to pleading for a "freedom to do
the wrong thing" in the church, one is merely confessing the bankruptcy of the
position advocated.
Yours Faithfully
K. Marquart
CTS
Ft. Wayne
We appreciate Professor Marquart's response to the article in CN
titled and sent out on Reclaim News, "LCMS Seminaries
and Pastors Moving From Walther to Loehe."
There were certainly enough citations from publications illustrating a renewed
fascination with Loehe. We have heard reverence for Loehe in lectures and conferences
frequented by professors from both seminaries. We could have published more citations.
However, on this point, Marquart has the right to speak. Yes, over the years, he has
repeatedly pointed out weaknesses in Loehe's positions.
His point about P. E. Kretzmann, assuming it is stated accurately, is quite correct.
However, regardless of Marquart's assertion, the Synod is not church, it is a group of
churches that agree to follow the same doctrine, practice, polity, regulations,
resolutions, constitution, worship, discipline and clergy roster. Marquart is presenting
Wisconsin's position that "Synod" is church. The Augsburg Confession tells us
very clearly "The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is
rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered."
The President of the Synod cannot consecrate the Sacrament at the Convention and
Marquart cannot consecrate the Sacrament at Fort Wayne's Kramer Chapel. The Synod in
Convention is not a congregation nor is Fort Wayne's Chapel. Neither the Synod,
Convention, District, nor Circuit in the LCMS is Church, and Marquart knows it. The
President is not the pastor of the Synod and the delegates vote on his election every
three years, hardly befitting a "pastor" of the church. The Synod does not have
the authority to call a pastor to an LCMS congregation. It only possesses determinations
regarding the Keys by consent of the congregations who possess the Keys by divine right.
The Synod could not exist without the congregations, but any congregation can exist
without the Synod and the LCMS clergy roster.
However, in Convention, the congregations have agreed that the Synod definitely
"govern(s) free Christian consciences with the truth of the divine Word and the
orthodox Confessions." No congregation is compelled to be part of the Synod, but the
congregations also agreed to follow the regulations which is part of following the
"legalism" of the Synodical constitution and the Convention's resolutions. All
constitutions are human "legalistic" and the Synod is a human invention, which
operates colleges, seminaries, conducts mission work and maintains numerous subsidiary
organizations and institutions.
Before the 1995 Convention, the Chairman of the Counsel of District Presidents, Dr.
John Heins, blasted me in front of 103 pastors, for reimposing the Prussian Union on the
LCMS. I was insisting that the name "Lutheran" be on all LCMS congregations.
Overweight "Affirm" operatives proclaimed that I was a legalist. Yes, I invented
the name "Lutheran" on all LCMS congregations. Somehow the Convention agreed to
keep the name "Lutheran."
Before the 1998 LCMS Convention, I was accused of being a legalist for preventing the
freedom of the Gospel. I was promoting a resolution that said LCMS pastors couldn't make
up creeds for their congregations to confess. Before the Convention, overweight
"Affirm" operatives took to the St. Louis Radio airways proclaiming that the
Apostle's Creed was not the Gospel. Yes, I invented the three Creeds.
Now, for the 2001 Convention, Marquart writes: "And then there is Pr. Cascione's
favorite war-horse, 'Voter Supremacy'" and Marquart's accusation that I confuse Law
and Gospel, you know, a legalist. Yes, I invented Voter Supremacy and the LCMS. Never mind
that the following authors, just to name a few, all write about the Synod's historic
position on Voter Supremacy:
"Form of the Christian Congregation," C.F.W Walther, CPH, St. Louis, 1989,
p.23, 24, 48, 54, 56, 66
"Pastoral Theology" by C.F.W. Walther," CN New Haven Mo., 5th Edition
1906 translated 1995,page 257, 264
"1847 Ebenezer 1922" by D. H. Steffens, CPH, Page 147
"Pastoral Theology" by John Fritz, CPH 1932, page 314
"Government in the Missouri Synod" by Carl Mundinger, 1947, CPH, page 196,
201
"The Abiding Word," E.J. Otto, CPH, 1947, Vol. II, Page 555
"The Abiding Word" CPH, 1947, Vol. II, page 460 "The Lutheran
Congregation" by G. Perlich
"Christian Dogmatics," J. T. Mueller. Page 561
"Teach My People The Truth" by Herman F. Zehnder, Frankenmuth Historical
Society, 1970, page 97
To read Marquart, Walther didn't understand himself, even though Walther goes into
lengthy detail explaining how the congregations should conduct their Supreme Voters'
Assemblies.
Again, Marquart would ignore the fact that numerous LCMS congregational constitutions,
accepted by the Synod in its first decade, and my own congregation which was formed before
Marquart was born, and the other congregations of which I have been the pastor stated in
German and later in English that the Voters' are Supreme and/or are the highest tribunal
in the congregation. Did everyone misunderstand Walther from the day the Synod was
founded?
The following four points all illustrate Voter Supremacy:
- The Confessions specifically say that the congregation elects its own pastor. (Trig.
523-24 par. 62, 69, 72, "Therefore it is necessary for the Church to retain the
authority to call, elect, and ordain ministers." Also Eph. 4:8, 1Pet. 2:9)
- The Confessions specifically say the local congregation is supreme over the pastor.
".the church is above the ministers" Trig. 507, "Christ gives supreme and
final jurisdiction to the Church" Trig 511, also, Matt. 18:17, Col. 4:17, 1Peter
5:1-3, 2Cor.8:8, and Walther agrees that the clergy are not the church.
- The Confessions specifically say that the congregation is the final judge in church
discipline. (Trig. 511, "Christ gives supreme and final jurisdiction to the
church." also Matt. 18:17-18; Acts 1:15, 23-26; 15:5, 12-13, 22-23; 1Cor. 5:2, 6:2,
10:15, 12:7, 2Cor. 2:6-8, 2Thess: 3:15)
- The Confessions say they agree with the Bible and the Bible teaches that the sheep judge
their shepherd in all doctrine. (Matt. 7:15-23, 1John 4:1, 1Cor. 10:15, Matt. 23:10,
1Thess. 5:1, Matt.10:42-44, Acts 17:11, 2Pet. 2:1, 1Cor.14:29, Rev. 2:2)
The sheep form the final tribunal in the congregation, not the clergy. When the pastor
speaks the Word of God correctly he should expect 100% obedience or they are not sheep.
When the congregation speaks the Word of God correctly, they should expect 100% obedience
from the pastor or he is no pastor.
Marquart steers the Synod into a sea of confusion. We again challenge him to produce
his own design for an LCMS congregational constitution like Walther did. I'm convinced
that Marquart is not sure that congregations can exist without the pastor.
Yes, the congregation has a right to be wrong; otherwise their votes are meaningless.
When they are wrong, it is called "sin." Walther viewed every vote on doctrine
as a test of faith to see who is approved (1Cor. 11:19). Perhaps Marquart would have
designed the Garden of Eden with a fence around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil.
Before the LCMS Conventions voted on resolutions reaffirming the name
"Lutheran," and whether we should only confess three Creeds in LCMS worship
services, the vote to adopt these resolutions was taken in our own Voters' Assembly.
Otherwise, the resolutions would have never been sent to the Conventions. The entire
Convention voted on the confession of the Gospel in the Creeds. Hundred's voted
"no," though it passed. I think they sinned by voting "no" but they
had the right to do it.
Marquart says I'm confusing Law and Gospel. No, he is the one confusing Law and Gospel.
I witnessed a majority vote (by the Bolsheviks) in the LCMS Convention on the correctness
of only confessing three Creeds. Why didn't Marquart go to the microphone and say,
"No one here can vote 'no'"? There were numerous cockamamie LCMS pastors telling
me for more than a year prior to the Convention that the Synod had no right to limit their
freedom to make up their own Creeds. Many of them were "confessionals" and
"conservatives," and in my opinion, gone mad. They have a right to be
"mad."
The Gospel, the Tree of Life, only exists by common consent of the faithful in the
congregation. If there are not two or three gathered in His Name, there is no church, even
if the pastor has faith.
For three days this past summer, I watched the Michigan District Convention discuss and
then vote on "committing" itself to the Core Values of "culturally relevant
congregations," "process consulting," "healthy congregational
systems," and "affinity-based learning clusters." Only one pastor in three
days offered any public objection. There is still time for them to repent and escape
eternal damnation. They have the right to be damn wrong! If Redeemer's Voters are not
Supreme, as Marquart insists, they must necessarily submit to the conditions of the eight
Michigan District Core Values.
If Marquart, in my opinion, the Synod's most outstanding theologian, can't understand
the importance of LCMS lay people being in control of their congregations, doctrine,
practice, and property, it is still up to the Convention to Vote on the issue. If the
Convention tables or votes down Voter Supremacy the answer is clear, at least for the
Courts. The free association of congregations called the LCMS that Redeemer Lutheran
Church joined in 1921 will no longer exist.
Case in point: On May 9, 2000, The Court of Appeals, Fifth District of Texas at Dallas,
ruled that under current LCMS congregational polity, layman Ronald Charles Hunt was an
owner of his church property and could not be removed from his property as long as he was
a member of the congregation. Justice Whittington wrote the opinion in behalf of the
three-judge panel consisting of Justices Whittington, James, and O'Neill. In two other
cases, two LCMS Districts had argued for an Episcopal System.
Marquart fantasizes about the polity of an imaginary Synod where lay people control the
property but not the doctrine. The good professor dreams of a separation of ownership from
stewardship. I own my house and I control what goes on in my house. What good is
controlling church property if lay people don't control the doctrine?
If the lay people confess the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions, they will have a
Lutheran Congregation. Luther knew that the Duke owned the church property, paid his
salary, and that he could only preach and teach at the pleasure of the Duke. We all know
what happened to Melanchton when Charles V rolled into town eight months after Luther's
death. Nothing has changed. In the LCMS, lay people own their church property; pay the
pastor's salary and the pastor serves at the pleasure of the lay people with a divine call
they give the pastor. God willing, they will be taught correctly and do the right thing.
There is no guarantee in this life that faithful people will have faith tomorrow.
The best approach is to teach the lay people instead of controlling them with "The
Marquart Rule" so they can't sin.