Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

the divine institution of the public ministry and the necessity of it among Christian
congregations,
If the Christians are a people of “kings and priests” and
have a spiritual priesthood, why should it then be necessary
to establish the preaching office and call pastors? Is it not,
at least, a matter of liberty which they can arrange for
themselves as they please? No, it is not a human ordinance.
God wants it to be so…
In another place he [St. Paul] describes these teachers and
overseers as the gifts of the ascended Savior to the
congregation and shows what the Savior’s purpose with
this gift is, saying (Eph. 4, 11 ff.) “And he gave some,
apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and
some, pastors and teachers”…for what purpose?... “for the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
edifying of the body of Christ”…And what is prevented,
thereby? He says: “That we henceforth be no more
children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind
of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” 246
A clear position muddled
There was nothing in the position of Koren and the Norwegian Synod with which
any of the later Wauwatosa men would disagree. But Koren’s clarity on the doctrines of
church and ministry would become muddled among the Norwegians in the years to come.
The ridged dogmatism that the Wauwatosa men saw in Missouri had already infected the
Norwegian Synod by the time of the Madison Settlement. The greater majority of pastors
and laity had already succumbed to the lack of activity in the Word. This apathy allowed
the political maneuvering of a few to carry the Norwegian Synod into the unscriptural
merger.
246 Koren, Right Principles, 124-125.
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