Awake, O Sleeper

I spotted the below piece at The Brothers of John the Steadfast.  Originally written in 1846, Dr. C.F.W. Walther admonishes Lutherans to awake from negligence and indifference to live as the baptized in Christ.  Walther’s assessment is not just a Lutheran issue: it is a Christian issue.  The Church in the United States needs this reminder every bit as much as it was needed 170 years ago.

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In America no denomination has suffered any deeper fall than this fellowship that is called “Lutheran.”  All the sects of this land are more zealous to preserve the false doctrines upon which they’ve been founded, and that give them their unique character, than the present so-called Lutherans intend to hold fast to the holy and pure doctrine which is founded upon the clear Word of God, that was entrusted to her through God’s unspeakable grace.  Yes, we see the American Lutheran Church is not only dominated by negligence and indifference, but even by enmity against the true Lutheran Church.  She has retained nothing but the name.  She has lost the ancient truth and the ancient spirit of witness.  Yet we also see that we have no reason to despair over the condition of the Lutheran Church in America.  God has obviously once again picked up his winnowing fork to beat his threshing floor and to sift his wheat.  God has obviously resolved to no longer sit back and watch the hidden mice, those false saints, those fish in muddy waters.  God has once again begun to open eyes here and there, who fearfully acknowledge the apostasy of which the Lutherans have become guilty.  Here and there God is awakening men who are loudly demanding those who have abandoned their first love to return.  God be praised!  After a long winter the turtledoves are again heard in our land. (Song of Songs 2:11-13)

Rise, get up then dear brothers!  Let us not idly watch as false brothers band together ever more tightly to bury the foundation of our church and create another beside it.  Since these do all this while still fraudulently fighting under our name, they are more dangerous than our declared enemies.  They are their compatriots even while they bunk in our camp.  He who dwells in heaven surely laughs at them and the LORD mocks them, for “even if the sea billows and rages, and the mountains erode in their storm, yet the city of God remains vibrant and well with her fountains, where are the holy dwellings of the Highest. God is with her, so she will remain well.  God will help her early.”  But as impossible as it is for Luther’s doctrine, that is, God’s Word to be driven out of the world, yet it is just that easily possible, if we do not hold on tightly to it (Tit 1:9–11) and fight for it (Jude 1:3) to lose this gem, (2 John 1:8-9) and someday be rejected as unfaithful stewards.

Therefore, if we do not wish be called hypocritical Lutherans, but want to be and remain Lutherans in deed and truth, let us walk together and again gather around the banner of the ancient, unchangeable doctrine of our church; pleading together that the LORD awaken and create help that comfort again be taught; together fighting against all deceptions with the sword of the Spirit and together bearing the shame by which the LORD strives to designate his servants.  We dare not hope that the church in these latter, horrible times will be established again in a condition of glorious bloom, yet we may also not abandon hope that our witness and our battle will not be completely in vain, but rather will give way to praise of the LORD and convert many souls from the errors of their way.

C.F.W. Walther

Der Lutheraner Volume 2, Number 11

January 1846, pg. 42-43

Translated by Joel Baseley

Laying It Out Plainly

C.F.W. Walther began a lecture in September, 1885 with this paragraph:

Currently, anyone who insists that pure doctrine is a very important matter is immediately suspected of not having the right Christian spirit.  The very term "pure doctrine" is considered taboo and is outlawed.  Even contemporary theologians who regard themselves to be among the confessional Lutherans usually speak of pure doctrine only in scornful terms, treating it as the embodiment of "dead letter" theology.  If anyone holds fast to pure teaching and attempts to fight against any false doctrine, he is put down as a heartless and unloving fanatic. *

How much more so today.  Pure (i.e., unadulterated) doctrine is scorned by postmodernists because it posits a transcendent and knowable truth, thus inhibiting conversation with those who disagree over faith traditions.  My experience is that more is learned and exchanged among debating parties by making objective truth claims.  They can and will disagree.  So much the better.  Conversations work when a common bond already exists, but when worldviews collide, each must articulately and accurately state his or her position in order to gain ground.

Just recently, David Mason wrote an op-ed in the New York Times entitled "I'm a Mormon, Not a Christian." What a breath of fresh air! Instead of making the case that Mormons and Christians are somehow following the same path, he freely admits the truth.  No hiding behind the doublespeak that they are just another denomination.  I respect that, even though he is completely wrong and will suffer the consequences at the judgement seat of Christ.

Christians are called to do no less.  This is not a day to sit idly by and "make nice" just to get along.  If the Bible is true and God is God, we must stand on that truth.  If they are anything less, we should give up and never darken a church door again.

* Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible, (trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 393.

Call Sin What It Is

This blindness concerning sin is the chief cause of the almost universal rejection of the Gospel in our time.  People who fail to recognize the horrible nature of sin decline to accept the sacrificial death of the Son of God for the reconciliation and redemption of this world of sinners.  They consider His death completely unnecessary and, therefore, regard the story of the Gospel as a miserable fable.

It is, therefore, one of the most important requirements of a true, Gospel-oriented pastor that he know how to explain to his listeners the true nature of sin in terms that are loud and clear as they are terrible, drastic, and relevant.  For without a real knowledge of what an awful thing sin is, a person cannot understand and accept the Gospel.  As long as he is not alarmed that sin is his greatest enemy and the most awful horror living in him, he will not come to Christ.

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,

(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 362

Preachers, Weigh Your Words

This quote is directed to future pastors but is equally applicable for teachers or anyone who proclaims or explains God's word to a group.

Every time a pastor is preparing to write a sermon that he will deliver from his pulpit, he should approach his task with fear and trembling, that is, with the reverent concern that he would preach nothing contrary to the Word of God.  He must examine everything he has written down most carefully to see whether it is in harmony with the Word of God and the experience of Christians.  Every time he should weigh everything that he is to speak in public, using the holy scales of the temple to weigh the true gold content, as it were.  He should see whether it agrees with the writings of the apostles and prophets.

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,

(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 328

We Cannot Help But Preach the Truth

Worldly people and all false Christians cannot help but attack those who teach a faith and doctrine different than theirs.  These fake Christians regard those with sound doctrine as "disturbers of the peace"—peace-hating, quarrelsome, and nasty people.  These unfortunate people have no idea of the blindness that surrounds them.  They do not know how gladly the boldest champions of Christ wish to keep peace with all people, how much they would prefer to keep silent.  These fake Christians do not know how hard it is for the bold champions to go public and become targets for the hatred, enmity, slander, scorn, and persecution of people.  However, they cannot help but confess the truth and at the same time oppose error.  Their conscience forces them to do this because such behavior is required of them by the Word of God.

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,

(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 293

Preach Christ's Finished Work So the Sinner May Find Rest

[T]he preacher needs to frame his address in a way that would awaken in every poor sinner the desire to lay down the burden of sins at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and say to Him, "You are mine, and I am Yours."  Here is where Luther reveals his true greatness.  He rarely appeals to his listeners: "Believe, really believe!"  Rather, he preaches the work of Christ, salvation by grace, and the riches of God's mercy in Jesus Christ.  Everyone gets the idea: "All I have to do is receive; all I need to do is rest in the lap of divine grace."  That is the great art that you must seek to learn, so each listener will think: "If that is true, then I am a blessed person.  All my anguish and unrest has been unnecessary.  I am completely redeemed.  I am reconciled with God.  I am among the saved, among those whom God has made His gracious face to shine."  The moment a person thinks these thoughts, he attains faith.

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,
(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 287-288

Repentance: A Sweet Sorrow

Love for God enters a person's heart through the Gospel.  When repentance follows from love for God, it is indeed a truly sweet sorrow, acceptable to God.  It pleases God, for we cannot offer Him greater honor than by throwing ourselves in the dust before Him, confessing, "You are righteous, O Lord, but I am a poor sinner.  Have mercy on me for the sake of Jesus Christ."

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,
(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 281

Genuine Preaching Is Hard Work

There are preachers who imagine that preaching is easy for them—and the longer they are in the ministry, the easier preaching becomes.  They believe that if only they are careful to preach nothing but the pure Word of God—without adding any heresy—that must be enough.  Such preachers have given in to a horrible and very dangerous error.  Mere pious talk without any purpose or logical order is not genuine preaching.

Rather, only the Holy Spirit through His Word inspires genuine preaching.  Accordingly, a genuine sermon comes about only after all the spiritual and intellectual energy of a truly believing preacher has been applied to the utmost, after passionate prayer, after all earthly cares have been chased from his mind, and after the preacher has been freed from all vain desires.  This is a difficult task.

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,

(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 272

The Law Works Condemnation and Contrition; The Gospel Works Love

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:17

The Law has only one single function: to lead people to the knowledge of their sins.  It has no power to renew [people].  That power is vested solely in the Gospel.  Only faith is active through love.  We, however, do not become spiritually active through "love" [when that means] through sorrow over our sins.

On the contrary, as long as we are still uninformed concerning the fact that God has become our reconciled God and Father through Christ, we hate Him.  An unconverted person who claims to love God is stating falsehood and is guilty of miserable hypocrisy—even though he may not be aware of it.  That person is making a false claim because only faith in the Gospel regenerates a person.  Accordingly, a person cannot love God as long as he is still without faith.  To demand of a poor sinner that he must be alarmed because of his sins and that he must feel sorry for them—out of a love for God—that is a terrible way of turning Law and Gospel completely backwards.

No, this is what the Bible's teaching really states: Sinners should come to Jesus just as they are, even if they have to acknowledge: "I have only hatred for God in my heart.  O God, what should I do?  What can I do to be saved?"

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,

(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 260

No Contribution Possible

Justification takes place by grace through faith—not because of any good qualities inherent in faith.  In justification, it is not the person's faith that is taken into consideration, but the fact that Jesus Christ has redeemed the entire world.  Justification is based on the fact that Jesus has already done what was necessary as has suffered all that mankind ought to have done and suffered, and that people merely have to accept this.  Therefore, the way to salvation is this: We contribute nothing—absolutely nothing—toward our salvation.  Rather, Christ has already done everything for us, and we must merely cling to what he has done, drawing consolation from His finished work of redemption and trusting in it for our salvation.

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,
(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 244

Faith Naturally Produces Fruit

A fruitful tree does not produce fruit because someone ordered it to grow fruit but because, as long as there is still some life in it and it is not dried up, it cannot help but produce fruit spontaneously.  Faith is like that tree.  If it fails to bring forth fruit, it is obviously withered.  In the same way, the sun does not need to be told to shine.  It will continue shining until the Last Day—without anyone commanding it to do so.  Faith is like the sun.

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,

(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 231

Rely Solely On Christ

No matter what other false doctrines [fanatical sects] may teach, they all have this great error in common: They do not rely solely on Christ and His Word, but chiefly on something that takes place within themselves.  As a rule, they imagine that all is well with them because they have turned from their former ways.  As if that were a guarantee of reaching heaven!  No—we should not look back to our conversion for assurance.  Rather, we must go to our Savior again and again—every day—as though we never had been converted.  My former conversion would be of no benefit to me if I became secure in my sins.  I must return to the mercy seat every day, otherwise I would make my former conversion my savior, and not Christ, because I would be relying on it.  That would be horrible, for at the end of the day that would mean that I would make myself my own savior.

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,

(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 225.

Knowing the Hour and Day

Early in my Christian life, I was convinced by others that if a person did not know when he first believed, that one was not a believer at all.  Once and again, well-meaning teachers stated plainly that if someone did not have the date, and perhaps hour, engraved in memory, that person's salvation was viewed as suspect.  With that knowledge came great pride in knowing the time of decision.  The "gold standard" was knowing the very minute.  My attitude was like those described by C.F.W. Walther:^†

The Pietists held that anyone unable to state the exact day and hour when he was converted and entered into grace was certainly not a true Christian.  The Pietists claimed that neither should such people consider themselves to be Christians nor should they be viewed as such.  (210)

Years later, I have come to understand that this was nonsense: first, because I met godly men and women who could not articulate when they believed; and second, because the Bible teaches no such thing.  What you may or may not remember of something done years ago is not as important as what you believe today.  Do I believe the gospel?  Do I confess Christ as Lord?  Do I believe the condemnation of sin the Law describes in me and trust the eternal promises of God that I am saved by faith as a free gift?  These questions point to the reality of my spiritual condition—within the kingdom of God or without.  Walther continues that

conversion is nothing other than an awakening from spiritual death into spiritual life.  Put differently, conversion is leaving the broad way leading downward and turning onto the narrow way leading upward.  It is the transfer from the realm of the devil to the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

Just as there is no "middle way" between death and life, just as there is no "middle way" between the narrow way leading upward and the wide way leading downward nor an intermediate realm between the realm of Satan and the kingdom of Christ, we are all spiritually dead or spiritually alive.  We are traveling either on the narrow or on the wide way.  We are either in the kingdom of Jesus Christ or in the realm of the devil.  In other words, a person is either converted or not.  There is nothing in between.  (210-211)

Regardless of what may or may not have occurred in the past, are you today trusting in Christ's atonement because of and for your sin?


^† C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible, (trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 210-211.

God Offers Pure Grace

Romans 11:5-6
So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.  But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

But if we are saved by pure grace, why should our salvation be such a difficult task—provided it is really grace that saves us?  It is precisely because we are saved by grace that God must have arranged matters so that we need nothing but the means by which God offers us forgiveness of sins, grace, and salvation.  When God says to the sinner, "Only believe," He is saying, "Accept what I give you; have confidence in Me.  What I am telling you is the truth.  Just come, lay hold of My gift, and take it."  When I hear the gospel preached to me, I am supposed to believe that it is God who is bringing me these glad tidings by means of the preacher's proclamation.  At the same time, God is saying to me: "Why do you keep on working to accumulate good works?  Christ has acquired all that you need.  Just believe, and all is yours.  I am not lying."  That is what God says.

C.F.W. Walther, Thesis IX

Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible,

(trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 175.

Give No Ground

If a theologian is asked to yield and make concessions so that peace may at last be established in the Church, yet if he refuses to budge on even a single point of doctrine—to human reason this looks like excessive stubbornness, even like downright evil intent. This is why such theologians are rarely loved or praised during their lifetime.  On the contrary, they are scolded as disturbers of the peace or even as destroyers of the kingdom of God.  They are regarded as men worthy of contempt.  But at the end of the day it becomes clear that the very determined, unfailing tenacity of these theologians as they cling to the pure teaching of the divine Word by no means tears down the Church.  On the contrary, it is this very attitude that—amid the great dissension—builds up the Church and ultimately brings about genuine peace.  Therefore, woe to the Church if it has no men of this stripe—men who would stand watch on the ramparts of Zion, sounding the alarm whenever a foe threatens to rush the walls, men who would rally to the banner of Jesus Christ, ready for a holy war!

C. F. W. Walther¹

These words from Walther struck me in light of the propensity of church leaders to:

●	acquiesce when confronted with wrong teaching
●	soften the clear testimony of scripture
●	resolve issues through expedient and pragmatic means
●	allow improper church practice

There are multiple reasons given to allow these, but they generally boil down to relevancy or tolerance.  An attempt is made to establish a reputation for a church or individual pursuing unity without contention.  Differences in doctrine or practice are relegated to the status of opinion as part of a "big tent" mentality making for easy dismissal while pursuing a common good.

While the admonition of brethren being together in harmony is quite scriptural, an "openness" policy that I have described creates a false unity based not on the Word of God but on emotional stability within a social construct.  Fellowship that should be centered around and built upon Christ is artificially constructed with worldly plans and materials rather than eternal truths.  Lack of strife and willingness to "get along" become the standards of spiritual maturity instead of Christ-likeness.

What Walther posits is a call to stand fast in what is true and right.  He uses the example from Ezekiel 33:1-20 of the watchman diligently looking for what might assail from outside.  The apostle Paul issued the same type of warning for those wolves within the flock (Acts 20:28-31).  The Lord has promised tribulation against and among his people from the enemy seeking to destroy what Christ promises to build.  The call for his church is to be singular in their mission.  Again looking at Paul's address to the Ephesian elders, what does he say was his mission and message?

I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  (Acts 20:20-21)

This message is the message of relevancy for us today.  We must fight the good fight of faith laying hold of those weapons that "are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds" with the end to "destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Cor 10:3-6).

What is the application for the local church not currently dealing with false doctrine or false sheep?  Be faithful to what you have been taught.  Do not succumb to group dynamics such as peer pressure.  If you are faced with a matter for consideration which already has a majority for approval, do not concede.  Make an argument via scripture and sound reason.  It may be that the dissenting voice is the correct one.  And if you as the dissenter is wrong, the scripture and sound reason used by others will carry the day.  In the end, the basis for moving forward is not the whim of man but the wisdom of the sound teaching manifesting itself through the body.


¹ C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible, (trans. Christian C. Tiews; St Louis: Concordia, 2010), 32-33.

Preach the Pure Gospel

We live in a free country, where it is nobody's concern whether you go to church or not.  In accordance with God's will, it should be the preachers goal to proclaim the Gospel to his listeners until their heart melts, until they give up their resistance and confess that the Lord is too strong for them and that from that point forward they wish to remain with Jesus.  It is not enough for you simply to be aware of your correct teaching and your ability to present doctrine correctly.  These are indeed important matters.  However, no one will benefit from them if you mingle Law and Gospel.

C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel, Concordia Publishing House, p. 458-9