"A decade has fully passed since the outbreak of the eventful controversy which has divided the Lutherans of North America into two camps. Dr. Walther showed already in the years of 1864—70, a leaning to the Calvinistic doctrines… The controversy itself broke out first in the year 1872, when Lehre und Wehre, the organ of the Missourians, (p. 205) directed a sharp attack upon Philippi of Rostock, accusing him of Synergism on account of his treatment of the doctrine of conversion in his Dogmatics.

Then it was that the theologians of the Iowa Synod (the Profs. Fritschell) raised a protest against the teachings of Dr. Walther… in consequence of which the Missourians charged them not only with Synergism in general, but with "Gross Synergism." Since that time the violence of the controversy has increased from year to year, and in the latter years of the past decade has produced such extreme excitement, and such a complete separation of all the Lutheran elements of the west, that the Synodical Conference previously under the control of Missouri, has been dashed into ruins." — Prof. Otto Zöckler

Book Contents

• The Missouri Doctrine Of Election By Dr. Otto Zöckler.
  • Missouri Pastoral Conference, 1872. (Lehre und Wehre).
  • Canons Of Dort, C. I., Art. 7. (Compare Niemeyer, Coll. conf. Eccl. ref., p. 694).
  • Irresistible Grace
  • Attempt to Reconcile Absolute Predestination With Scripture, Luther, and the Old Lutherans
  • Luther, Predestination, and Universal Grace
• The Controversy On Predestination by Charles Krauth.
  • Introduction by Dr. A. Spaeth
• Concerning The Dogma Of Predestination.
  • A. The Profound Mystery
  • B. The Relation of the Formula of Concord to Lutheran Theologians Earlier and Later
  • I. Early Theologians
  • II. Earlier Lutheran Confessions
  • III. The Reformed From The Beginning Openly Declared Absolute Predestinarianism and Determinism
  • IV. The Confession Rejects the Deterministic and Ultra-Predestinarian Tendencies of Earlier Lutheran Theologians
  • V. Faith and God’s Election
  • VI. Conclusion

Publication Information

• Lutheran Library edition first published: 2019
• Updated: 2019-10-05 (v5)
• Copyright: CC BY 4.0