Open Letter to Herr Territorial Bishop Dr. Meiser in Munich[1]
Reformation 1948
Translated by Matthew Harrison
Most Worthy Herr Territorial Bishop![2]
Already quite some time ago I was compelled to inform you that if the Evangelical Lutheran Territorial Church in Bavaria should join the "Evangelical Church in Germany" planned at the assemblies of Treysa,[3] that it would be necessary for me to leave the Bavarian Territorial Church and join the free church. After the Bavarian Territorial Synod joined the EKiD constituted in Eisenach,[4] by means of a church law which, humanly speaking, is irreversible, I was forced to take the decisive step and have left the Territorial Church for the Free Church. My office as official teacher of theology, and the responsibility which I bear for my students, necessitates in this circumstance that I publicly direct a final word to you, one with whom I worked closely for many years in a common struggle for the maintenance of the Lutheran Church in Germany.
1. Every theologian knows that the Constitution [Grundordnung] of the EKiD is irreconcilable not only with the letter but also with the spirit of the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Or do you know one single theologian who would venture to harmonize the condemnations of the Augustana and the Formula of Concord against certain Reformed teachings, as they are authentically interpreted in the Preface to the Book of Concord,[5] with the church fellowship which was established in the Constitution between Lutheran, Reformed and United Churches? Our Confession expressly declares that it does not deny to the Reformed Churches within and outside of Germany the character of Christian Churches. It speaks of them with human respect and Christian love. But at the same time, it declares very definitely that certain teachings of the Reformed Churches can not be tolerated, because they "are contrary to the expressed Word of God, and can not stand along side it." Thus there is indeed, according to Lutheran teaching, a cooperatio in externis (i.e. cooperation in external things) with the Reformed, as it was exercised even in the age of Orthodoxy in the Corpus Evangelicorum,[6] but no communicatio in sacris [i.e. no fellowship in the "holy" things, that is, in the use of Word and Sacrament]. But such a communicatio however, was fundamentally established in the Constitution. If human words have any meaning at all, then the provisions of Article 4 state nothing other than that altar- and pulpit-fellowship between the various confessions within the EKiD will be treated as the norm.[7] And this is necessarily the case when Article 1 expressly ascribes to the EKiD that which only the genuine church of Christ can do in the one correct faith, namely instruct on the nature, ordering and task of the church, and reject church-destroying false doctrine. Then in the provisions of Article 7 ff. this teaching office is given express responsibility over the tasks of the EKiD, in regard to theological instruction and investigation, ecclesiastical and theological publications, the education of youth and missions. What the confessions condemn as church-destroying false doctrine which every one is to avoid, Article 1 calls the "Witness of the Brothers," which must be heard. One can assert that the confessions are in error and that the Protestant confessions [denominations] must be understood not as excluding each other, rather broadening expressions of Evangelical Christendom, as the Constitution expressly does so. But then this must be said openly. It is a profound untruthfulness when it is asserted that joining the EKiD can be reconciled with the continued legitimacy of the Lutheran Confession, and for the Bavarian Territorial Church that means the Book of Concord. How will this assertion be justified over against the Christian congregation? For the congregation does not and can not know that the theologians are secretly reinterpreting the confessions. They rely upon the word of the church government. What do you intend to do, Most Worthy Herr Territorial Bishop, in order to protect the congregations entrusted to you in the face of the deception of a theology which obfuscates the facts?
[1] “Offener Brief an Herrn Landesbischof D. Meiser in Muenchen.” (Reformationsfest [31 Okt] 1948) Vervielfaetigung, 5 pp. in Der Lutheraner [Frankfurt/Main] 2.12 (Dez 1948) 116-118; “Zwei ‘Offene Briefe’ von Professor Sasse.” In LuBl 30.115 (9 Aug 1978) 4-16. Feuerhahn Bibliography no. 264. FWH
[2] “Sasse was supported at first [in his fight against the establishment of the EKiD] by two high church councilors in Bavaria: Christian Stoll and Wilhelm Bogner, but both men met a tragic death in a collision with a U.S. army vehicle that was driving on the wrong side of the road near Wuerzburg. After their passing, Sasse found that he no longer had a voice in Munich. Bishop Hans Meiser seemed to be misled and was no longer listening to Sasse. It was this disillusionment that led Sasse to resign and move to Australia. Years later, Dietzfelbinger, Meiser’s successor as bishop, expressed his deep appreciation for Sasse’s warnings in a memorial essay written in 1977 after Sasse’s death. By then, however, the Lutheran Church of Bavaria had given up its confessionally Lutheran stance by accepting the practice on intercommunion with churches that held different teachings and had also introduced the requirement that candidates for ordination accept the Barmen Declaration. This gave the Barmen Declaration a quasi-confessional status and denounced the positions of Elert, Althaus, Sasse, Ulmer and Stoll, among others [Proksch]. At the University of Erlangen, the theological faculty formally revoked its commitment to the Lutheran Confessions in 1970. This brought to an end a period of 150 years in which the University of Erlangen had been widely regarded as the principle voice of the Confessions in world Lutheranism. Green, Lutherans Against Hitler, pp. 367-68. On May 5, 1934 the Erlangen professors had issued an Opinion [Gutachten] of the Erlangen Professors against the "voluntary incorporation of the Landeskirchen in the senses/understandings of the rising [?] of Lutheran churches in the DEK" (Althaus, Elert, Preuss, Proksch, Sasse und Ulmer). They were consistend with respect to EKiD. Feuerhahn Chronology. MH
[3] “The old Reich Church, the DEK, was reorganized as the EKiD at an August 27, 1945, meeting at Treysa, near Kassel, deep within the Union church in Hesse” Green, Lutherans Against Hitler. MH
[4] The assembly in Eisenach July 9-15, 1948 constituted the EKiD. RGG3.2.779. Sasse later stated, “The Lutheran Church was buried at Eisenach.” MH
[6] The Corpus Evangelicorum was a body representing the interests of the protestant churches with the Kaiser and German government. It was formed on July 22, 1653 as a common diplomatic organ under the leadership of Electoral Saxony. It undertook church calendar reform in 1699. The demise of the German Reich brought its end. RGG3.1.1873-74. MH
[7] Article 4, 4 of the Fundamental Ordering of the EKiD states: "Regarding admittance to the Holy Supper there exists in the Evangelical Church in Germany no complete agreement. In many member churches those who belong to one of the other confessions recognized in the Evangelical Church in Germany are admitted without limitation. In no member church will admittance to the Table of the Lord be denied to a member of a confession recognized in the Evangelical Church in Germany, where the responsibility of spiritual care or congregational relationships demand such admittance. The legal church membership and the provision regarding general church discipline remain in tact in all circumstances." MH
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1 comments:
exceptional title for a blog post!
-anonymous public confessions
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