LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

38 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XV
had become a central article of faith. Preus recapitulates the teaching of the
earlier dogmaticians in saying that God’s foreknowledge is connected to
divine providence, and sets limits on evil and controls all things to God’s
glory, but is not the cause of evil. Predestination “effects, foreordains, and
causes everything that pertains to the salvation of individual sinners”, but it
must be seen only in the light of the Gospel and the Means of Grace. 76
Therefore, “since election is part of the Gospel, there is no predestination to
damnation.” 77 This of course excludes all works righteousness. It also
excludes election intuitu fidei “in view of faith”, foreseen by God in eternity,
an idea first introduced by Aegidius Hunnius (1550-1603). 78
CONCLUSION
As we have seen, it was this notion of intuitu fidei that F. A. Schmidt
accepted and on account of which he opposed Walther and the Synodical
Conference—a false teaching that Busch tried to minimize in his 1982 article
on the Predestinarian Controversy, attempting to reduce a substantial
doctrinal controversy to a personality clash between Walther and Schmidt,
with the clear implication that the Seminex controversy was likewise a
personality clash between J. A. O. Preus and John Tietjen. The
Predestinarian Controversy thus becomes a paradigm for modern theological
conflicts—doctrine doesn’t matter all that much; controversy stems from
ivory tower theologians who squabble and argue and talk past each other. In
this view, all denominations teach pretty much the same thing—something
about Jesus—so we can minimize doctrinal differences for the sake of
external unity in the church. As a result, liberal church bodies like the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church in the
U.S.A and the Episcopal Church U.S.A. have entered into altar and pulpit
fellowship with one another.
Conservative church bodies take doctrine more seriously. They recognize
that external unity can only be achieved by internal unity—that is, full
agreement on all points of Christian doctrine. Of course one point of doctrine
over which there is serious disagreement is Predestination. Arminians and
Calvinists and Lutherans have markedly different interpretations, with each
group insisting that it is interpreting the Bible correctly. I hope that the
Lutheran contribution to this topic might be helpful in helping to resolve this
controversy and furthering Christian understanding and unity.
76 Preus, 273.
77 Preus, 274.
78 Preus, 275.