The sad curse of the Walther Cult

These quotes are taken from the work of the Rev. Dr. Karl Edwin Kuenzel.

I blogged about this in here

The fanatical adoration of CF W Walther in American Lutheranism is astoundingly cultic already, so here are the results of Dr. Kunzel's evaluation:

Walther was a tremendous leader, a dynamic preacher, a powerful lecturer, and a remarkable writer. However, lest we wind up worshipping the man, as many had done with Martin Stephan, and perhaps some do with Luther, we need to be mindful of some of Walther’s deficiencies.
Walther was legalistic when it came to the matters of usury, dancing and going to the theater, life insurance, running a tavern, in-law marriage (e.g., a man marrying the sister of his deceased wife), geographical parish boundaries, the local congregation, and the pastoral office. He often made his position as if it were Scripturally based and therefore God-given doctrine, when, in fact, he was going beyond what the Bible says and turning matters of casuistry into untenable doctrines.
....
Not only did Walther use terms that were readily misunderstood by others, but another cause for his naevi [faults], according to his student August Pieper, was that Walther depended too heavily on the secondary sources of theology, i.e., Luther and the lesser fathers. In spite of all his emphasis on Scripture, there can be no denying this. Although Walther was a great and a very talented leader, he was a poor, even an inferior exegete. He had only an average knowledge of the original biblical languages. Frequently he would cite dozens of Bible passages merely because Luther and the dogmaticians had done so. Yet these passages did not prove what they were supposed to prove. Although very eager to express himself on matters, he failed to recognize that his position was based on translations and not on the original text. Thus, he could say something as if it were doctrinally true, but without a firm scriptural basis. Overall, the knowledge of Scripture that Walther had was more an intimate acquaintance with Luther’s Bible and knowledge of certain passages rather than knowledge of the whole line of thought of a biblical book and of the original text.

Note: The conclusion is that he was a fantastic quoter but a poor and weak exegete who could not read the original Biblical text. As we can read, seems like he had an opinion about any spiritual matter, "eager to express himself on matters". There are plenty of these cultic types of people who can even quote Scripture from memory but when analyzed deeper, it is off.

Faith is never a work, whatsoever

Faith is never a work, if we are talking about the faith in Christ mentioned in the Scriptures.
Those who say or claim it is, are doing a number on you.
This is a straw man fallacy.

In Romans 4:16, it says "Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace..."
The Bible does not say nor imply at any time that your faith in Christ is something you have generated out of your shear self.

If you are saved through faith, says St Paul in Romans 4, then you are saved by grace. Faith in Christ is always according to grace.

If your saved by your faith then so say the straw man accusers - then you can have faith in your faith. Faith in Christ cannot be faith in something else, by the definition of Scripture. Stick to that definition, the accuser is doing a fallacy he himself does not recognize he is making.

If you say I have decided to believe in Jesus, then you are just fooling yourself, your faith is not a decision you cannot decide about Jesus dying for you. You can deny it and so claim that God is a liar but when you are convinced by it, the HS produced it on you.

LPC

Perfect Family?

I wish I have or I wish I came from a perfect family, but I don't.

So maybe we can look to the Bible to find a perfectly happy family? There seems to be none.

Cain killed Abel, his brother. Abraham and Sarah for a while lapsed in faith producing Ishmael and Isaac and some trace the conflict in the middle east from this. Jacob swindled Esau his brother, Esau rejected the gift offered by his father.

We can see this also in the children of judges and priests in the OT.  Aaron's sons violated the Law and offered strange fire. God slew them, I thought of how Aaron would have felt about this.

Perhaps in the Lord's home? We hear his brothers did not believe in him. John 7:5. That does not suggest everything is honky dory there.

When I look at families less complex than mine, I get tempted to violate the 10th commandment, I covet what the family of others. I would say I wish that I have that kind of family.

It is time to look at the Scripture and hope for the real family in heaven.

One of the best sermons I heard last year.

It was not really the sermon of the pastor. I came in a few minutes after the preacher started his sermon and I was enjoying the words coming out of the pulpit. At the end, he revealed that he was reading Luther's sermon. He said he did not know what to preach and so he took one of Luther's sermons out and chose to read it to the congregation. I was so blessed he did that.

This provided food for thought to me. Honestly, I am disappointed at the sermons I hear from pastors here. Most of the time they wander off from the text of Scripture and I wind up wondering what on earth happened in that preaching moment.

It is dawning on me what Dr. Greg Jackson has been saying, that Luther is still a reliable preacher and we can count on getting meat from his works if we feel starved for good exposition of God's word. Thank God Pr. Greg has decided to publish Luther's Sermon works.