Pastor Andrew Preus
It has been fifty years since February 19, 1974, the day the majority of the faculty and students of Concordia Seminary staged the famous walkout. It was a protest surrounding the suspension of Dr. John Tietjen from the presidency of the seminary. Almost all the faculty, with the exception of five, left the seminary, along with most of the students. They formed Concordia Seminary in Exile, later renamed Christ Seminary. To this day the break-off seminary, along with the entire event, is known as Seminex (Seminary in Exile).
A documentary was produced about a decade ago entitled, “Seminex: Memories of a Church Divided.” The two perspectives were represented. The sympathizers of Seminex portrayed the conservatives as power-hungry politicians trying to get rid of anyone who didn’t align with them. Against this grasp for power, they spoke of the uniting power of the gospel. They also expressed their love for their church and the grief they felt in leaving their church. One man noted the sociological makeup of the LCMS and the political allegiances of her members.1
The conservative position was expressed most clearly by the sainted editor of this paper, Rev. Herman Otten. He explained that the issue centered on the very question of truth. Is the Bible the inerrant Word of the living God? Is it true? That’s what’s at stake.
Tietjen was suspended because he supported the historical critical method of interpreting the Bible, also known as simply higher criticism. This method assumes that Scripture is a series of redacted documents, the truth of which depends on human investigation. For the higher critic, Scripture evolved out of the community of the church. This is why the sympathizers of Tietjen and the Seminex movement emphasized the church so much. They couldn’t hold to Scripture alone, so the issue for them was all about the relationships in the church. They talked about the uniting power of the gospel. This, however, was not so much a uniting of believers to all biblical doctrine with Christ as the Cornerstone (Eph 2:20). Instead, it was simply a uniting of all believers to Christ without the foundation of Scripture. They turn Jesus into a cornerstone that doesn’t hold anything up. Of course, they would argue that Christ holds up the church, but without the Bible’s doctrine the church turns into a mere social entity.
There is a lot more to say about the implications of higher criticism, such as the denial by some of the Virgin birth, the resurrection, and Christ’s propitiation of God’s wrath in our stead. But let’s consider this key distinction. The Seminex sympathizers saw the issue as primarily about the church and how the church behaves. Conservatives like Otten said the issue was Scripture and how it was to be taught truthfully. So to this day, one side emphasizes that this controversy tore families and congregations apart. Another side emphasizes that the very foundation of saving truth was at stake, and without the truthfulness of Scripture the church ceases to be the church and families cease to be godly homes.
It’s certainly sad to see houses divided. It’s sad to see five in one family in conflict, three against two and two against three, father against son, mother against daughter, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law (Luke 12:52-52). But this isn’t merely a gloomy social problem. It is God’s judgment, the dividing sword of his Word, his fire exposing those who tell lies in his name and testing those who cling to his truth.
However much the weeping is mingled with the shouts of joy, the shouts of joy must prevail. God works through division. Jesus came to bring fire on the earth. He bore the fire of God’s wrath, purifying us from sin by satisfying God’s judgment in his own body, fulfilling every jot of Scripture, even as he remains with us who endure the fiery divisions in the church. St. Paul teaches us that divisions are necessary in the church in order to prove those who are genuine (1 Cor 11:19). This is the cross our Lord bids us to take up. While God exposes the enemies of his truth, his Word remain like silver purified by fire seven times (Ps. 12). Meanwhile, his church is tried in the furnace of afflictions so that she would cling more firmly to these clear words of the Scriptures held together by Christ the Cornerstone. In this way, she is proven to be the church.
1 See his book, Burkee, James C., Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod: A Conflict that Changed American Christianity, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011.
For a response from an eyewitness conservative, see Rev. Rolf Preus’s review of Burkee’s book: https://christforus.org/NewSite/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Review-of-Power-Politics-and-the-Missouri-Synod.pdf
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