John Ehrett, a member of an LCMS congregation in good standing, recently had his article “Tradition and Antisemitism” published by the American Reformer. Unlike the old Missouri Synod, this writer (and the whole leadership of all major “Lutheran” synods, especially the LCMS) condemns Luther’s book On the Jews and Their Lies. He slanderously attributes the Reformer’s vehemence against the children of the devil to “suffering from gout” and being “consumed by the fear that his Reformation had failed.” Further attempting to discredit people who believe the Bible, Ehrett calls attention to the illegitimate “excommunication” of Corey Mahler. And the quote which he wants his ignorant readers to recoil in fear over is simply Mahler’s paraphrase of 1 Thessalonians 2:15. But of course he didn’t know that, for that would require a passing familiarity with God’s Word.
Interestingly, in describing the “Allies” of the Second World War, our author calls them “western.” If he were truly concerned for the truth, he should not have failed to note that the “western” Allies included the godless Soviets. But it doesn’t matter; no falsehood is too blatant, no deception too devilish, that it may not be used to oppose “fascism” and “ultranationalism” — for our god Democracy demands her sacrifices!
Our author then makes the blasphemous assertion: “every branch [denomination] of Christianity is implicated by it [the Papistic development of doctrine].” It is said to be “inarguable” that “doctrinal development is intrinsic to the Christian tradition as such.” But this is very necessary. For otherwise how would he justify his utter rejection of the greatest teachers of the Church, but by becoming a veritable Papist?
Nearing the end of his article, Ehrett, beloved by the LCMS, says:
What the Christian tradition must understand, after the Third Reich, is that continuing Judaism is that conscience apart from which Christian theology is perennially tempted by history. The continuing Jewish people are a perpetual witness to the One God who called Abraham out of Ur, and who covenanted with his chosen people at Sinai—the One God who stands before and beyond the Baals and Asherah poles of nature-theology, and of whom no graven images may be made. There can be no supersession of the condition of the possibility of true theology. And Christian theology must not forget this.
This conclusion carries political implications: a “Christian society” that can find no place for continuing Judaism will, sooner or later, cease to be one. No one must insist, in the name of social cohesion or some other factor, that the Jewish people have no legitimate place in a Christian polity. That is a road to violence and theological ruin.
So he rejects the doctrine of Scripture that the Christian Church is the chosen nation of God, and that the Jewish people as such are not chosen (commonly called “supersessionism,” or “replacement theology” in less learned circles), as being alien to “true theology.” Furthermore, it is apparently “a road to violence” to deny Jews their God-given right to blaspheme Christ, saying that His holy mother was a whore, that He was a wicked sorcerer, etc. And any polemics against this doctrine of the Jews must “culminate in a decidedly anti-Christian end.” For, according to all modern Lutherans, true Christianity is only that which sends all Christians prior to the twentieth century to hell. — Proof enough what kind of tree has spawned the hellish fruit of philo-Semitism.
Altlutheraner 