Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

ule or judge in matters of faith, neither “the Church”, nor
any individual teacher in the church, nor any pastoral
conference, nor any congregation, nor any synod, nor any
majority, but only “that which is written.” 52
While Koren does not directly address “father’s theology” in En Redegjoeresle,
he demonstrates ably the pitfalls of it. If someone (like Schmidt, for example) uses the
doctrinal writings of men without first studying the Scripture from which they are drawn
and the Lutheran symbols which give testimony to the pure doctrine, then those writings
can be easily misinterpreted and used to support a position the orthodox fathers never
intended. This was clearly the case with F.A. Schmidt’s use of both Erik Pontoppidan 53
and Johann Gerhard 54 to support a doctrine which both these fathers would have objected
to vehemently,
…we acknowledge, not indeed as a complete definition of
the concept of election, but still as a correct presentation of
the last part of it, the answer given to Q.548 of
Pontoppidans’s Sanhed til Gudfrygtighed, which reads:
“That God has appointed all those to eternal life whom he
from eternity has seen would accept the grace proffered
them, believe in Jesus and preserve in this faith unto the
end. Rom. 8:28-30.” II Tim. 1:13.
This is to be understood in the manner in which it is
developed by John Gerhard in the following quotation:
“The merit of Christ is the cause of our election. But since
the merit of Christ does not benefit anyone without faith,
therefore we say that the regard to faith (intuitu fidei) is a
52 Koren, What the Norwegian Synod Has Always Wanted, 27.
53 Erik Pontoppidan (1698-1764), Norwegian Lutheran pastor and professor who wrote a popular
explanation of Luther’s Catechism for use in school and confirmation instruction entitled Sandhed til
gudfrygtighed (“Truth unto Piety”). In his explanation of election, Pontoppidan uses the phrase “in view of
faith.” This long used phrase became improperly employed during the Election Controversy and was used
falsely by Schmidt and other in the Norwegian Synod as a rallying point against the orthodox Lutheran
position.
54 Johann Gerhard (1582-1637), German Lutheran theologian was the first to use the term intuitu fidei in
connection to the doctrine of election. Gerhard employed the term in a way in which it could be properly
understood, but later generations would take his meaning out of context and use it to support the heterodox
position during the Election Controversy.
33