The Nineteenth Evening Lecture (Pages 193-207)

For this evening’s lecture, Dr. Walther opened up by discussing one of the most important of the many doctrinal differences that were discussed between the so-called Pietist and the Orthodoxists, which was, “the Pietists — disciples, though not altogether faithful disciples, you know, of Spener, August Herman Francke, and John Jacob Rambach — held that any one unable to state the exact day and hour when he was converted and entered into grace was certainly not a true Christian and could be regarded as such neither by himself nor by others. The Orthodoxists denied this.” Also Walther covered how a person is either converted or not; there is no intermediary state. He also went over which groups have picked up on the system of keeping on praying and struggling until they feel that God has received them into grace, and those were the Pietists, methodists, and more. Walther also explained how, “Feeling proceeds from faith, not faith from feeling. If a person’s faith proceeds from feeling, it is not genuine faith; for faith requires a divine promise which it lays hold of.” Shortly after that, Walther went over, “1 John 3, 19–20: Hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. For [Luther: dass] if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.” That basically meant do not try to silence your conscience when you are doing wrong. Later a good point Walther made was, “ Good congregation-members may come to the pastor complaining of great spiritual misery, claiming they cannot believe at all. If, upon being asked whether they would like to believe, they eagerly answer in the affirmative, they are to be comforted with the assurance that they may confidently consider themselves believers, and they should be told to wait until God permits the hour of their affliction to pass, when they will presently observe their faith breaking forth in great strength and joy.” Later, Walther brought the evening to a close by explaining that no matter what other false doctrines the fanatical sects may teach, they have a grievous error in common, which is, “that they do not rely solely on Christ and His Word, but chiefly on something that takes place in themselves. As a rule, they imagine that all is well with them because they have turned from their former ways. As if that were a guarantee of reaching heaven!”