Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

the church unperverted. It thus has God’s fullness and the
living source from which all deficiencies may be supplied,
and it can claim for itself all the advantages of which other
denominations boast…
It is true that there was much unfaithfulness in our camp
and we almost disappeared from sight. But we did not die
out, or where did we who fight against you come from? We
are the proof of our teaching that the church may become
small but it can never die. It can wane like the moon, but it
can also wax like the moon…
Our new life was kindled by the Scriptures, and on this they
are clear, even if – as you say – they are not on other
matters. Here in this shining example it is obvious that you
are wrong if you call the Scriptures obscure.
Would you rather have our new life kindled by the writings
of the fathers? Good! Then you may be alarmed about these
relics of ours – these writings of the deceased fathers –
from which we have just now begun to learn how to fight
and how not to fight. 113
Compare also the ELS’ usage of the “analogy of faith” with that of the WELS. In
George Lillegard’s class notes for biblical hermeneutics at Bethany Lutheran Theological
Seminary, he employed the analogy of faith as a hermeneutical principle. There is even a
discussion about the analogy of faith as a hermeneutical principle by Paul Zimmerman, a
Bethany professor in the 1950s. 114 As late as 1997, the Lutheran Synod Quarterly was
still discussing the relative merit of using the analogy of faith as a hermeneutical
principle. 115
113 Wilhelm Loehe, Three Books about the Church, Translation by James Schaaf (Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1969), 113-114.
114 Paul Zimmermann, “Biblical Hermeneutics,” Clergy Bulletin 12, no. 5 (December 1952).
115 Juul Madson, “The Analogy of Faith,” Lutheran Synod Quarterly 37, no.2 (July 1997). Juul Madson
was in a unique position in regards to hermeneutical method. While raised in the ELS and spending his
entire ministry serving her as a pastor and professor, he received his ministerial training at Northwestern
College, Watertown, WI and his seminary training at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.
65