Three streams.
There are three streams that have flowed into current
confessional Lutheranism. (There are more, but for present purposes, these
three are sufficient to consider.)
Stream One.
Those born, baptized, raised, confirmed, and still living in
confessional Lutheranism.
Stream Two.
Those born, baptized, raised, and confirmed in Lutheran
synods that went antinomian. Examples would be the ALC, the LCA, and the ELCA.
In those synods, there have been teachings like Joseph Fletcher’s Situation
Ethics and 1622 other forms of antinomianism.
Stream Three.
Those born, dedicated, raised, rededicated, rededicated, and
rededicated until their rededicators broke in the Evangelical denominations. In
those denominations, there have been teachings like Keswick Theology and 1622
other forms of legalism.
Now the pool of confessional Lutherans are having trouble
understanding each other. Those who have come out of Evangelicalism have
difficulty understanding why other Lutherans would want to let legalism take
over their current confessional synods. Why would they want the LCMS, WELS,
ELS, TAALC, and other confessional synods to become Evangelical? It is an
existential threat, because the Law was killing them in Evangelical churches,
and if the Law destroys confessional Lutheranism, there will be nowhere to go.
Those who have come out of apostate Lutheranism have
difficulty understanding why other Lutherans would want to let antinomianism take
over their current confessional synods. Why would they want the LCMS, ELC,
TAALC, and other confessional synods to become like the ELCA? It is an existential
threat because, under Situation Ethics and the like, doing away with the Law
also did away with the Gospel, and if the antinomianism destroys confessional
Lutheranism, there will be nowhere to go.
Much of the debate takes the form of pin-balling between the
bumpers of personal experiences. Those in Stream Three form their current
theology partly from the corpus of Lutheran doctrinal literature, and partly
from reaction to Evangelicalism. Too large of a dose of the new mixture is
simply reactionary against Evangelicalism, which takes the form of reacting against
the Law.
Those in Stream Two form their current theology from their
Lutheran homes, confirmation studies, lives as life-long Lutherans, and their
reaction against Situation Ethics and the other forms of antinomianism that
destroyed their childhood synods.
Each of those streams has gone through a destruction. The
former ALC-like types have gone through the destruction of their childhood
synods and have had to leave their families for the faith. The former
Evangelicals have gone through the destruction of their inner lives as they
tried and failed to reach the mirage of the deeper spiritual life.
It is hard for former Evangelicals to understand that to have
experienced the destruction of one’s synod is as devastating as to experience
the destruction of one’s inner life. But, because the Lutheran faith is extra nos, when you take that
destruction on its own terms, it is every bit as devastating.
I am in both Stream Two and Stream Three. I was born and
baptized in the Danish Lutheran Synod. I was confirmed in the American Lutheran
Church. My confirmation pastor, Rev. Dr. Casper B. Nervig, was the last
confessional pastor of my childhood congregation. Immediately following my
confirmation and his retirement from the ministry, Joseph Fletcher, Situation
Ethics, Paul Tillich, and 1622 other forms of antinomianism took over, and
today my baptismal and confirmation congregations are in the ELCA. While in
post graduate studies, I finally departed my beloved and destroyed synod and
went looking for Christianity that affirmed the doctrine of Scripture, since
the denial of that doctrine is what lay at the root of the antinomian
destruction. After bopping around in several denominations, I found a high view
of Scripture in the Christian and Missionary Alliance. There I found a
beautiful spiritual home for a period of decades. The Alliance and its people
have been so good to my family and me that I am in no mood to say anything
against the Alliance. It is not a monolith, but Keswick Theology is present in
parts of the denomination.
One day, someone invited me to a Confessional Reading Group.
Soon I was attending a weekly group Tuesday at noon, and a monthly group on a
Wednesday evening. Aside from my Dad’s and Mom’s instruction in the home and
the church’s instruction in Sunday school and confirmation, this was the most
evangelistic thing anyone ever did for me. By a series of steps from there, I
am back in a confessional Lutheran congregation and synod.
I am tempted to form my theology as reaction to Situation
Ethics and antinomianism. I am tempted to form my theology as reaction to
Keswick Theology and Evangelicalism. The thing I must remember, and that I wish
we all could remember, is that neither reaction is Lutheran, and neither is
Christian, because neither is sola scriptura. We are not letting Scripture form
our theology. Experience is forming it. We are so far down into the weeds of
our personal experiences that we cannot see we are living reactionary lives.
We cannot hear what others say. We hear our experiences
instead. When some Lutheran says we should teach or exhort the Law and tell
people the Gospel does not make us free to hate our neighbors by breaking the
commandments of the Second Table, we hear Evangelicalism, Keswick Theology, and
1622 other forms of legalism, even though no one said keeping the Law is
necessary for justification. We then go on to refute something they never said,
and the conversation, like ships passing in the night, never makes contact.
