WELS and Other Lutherans: Second Edition

By Dr. John Brug

Do a quick online search or open the yellow pages of any major metropolitan area to “Churches – Lutheran” and you will find a wide variety of options and acronyms. ELCA, LC-MS, WELS, CLC, AALC, FCLC, etc. – it is a veritable alphabet soup of synods, fellowships, churches, networks and societies that all claim to be the true doctrinal heirs of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. It can be extremely confusing and frustrating for the “veteran” Lutheran, raised up in and familiar with the history and controversies within the Lutheran Church, to fully understand the miasma that is modern Lutheranism in the United States let alone the newcomer. In the second edition of his book “WELS & Other Lutherans” Doctor John F. Brug, a professor at the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, attempts to explain the historical doctrinal differences that have led to the current divisions in modern Lutheranism and describe why the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) must, if it is to stay true to God’s inspired word, remain apart from these other Lutheran bodies.

Dr. Brug begins his book with a discussion of the history between the WELS and the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LC-MS). In many ways, this is the saddest section of the book to read. For almost a century, from 1868 to 1961, the WELS and the LC-MS were not only in fellowship, indeed for a sizable portion of our association the LC-MS often acted as the spiritual conscience that helped keep the fledgling WELS faithful to Scripture. It is sad to hear about a friend, once so near and dear, move further and further into error. Dr. Brug spends most of this chapter in his book explaining the doctrines, including prayer fellowship with other churches and the doctrine of church and ministry, which caused the WELS to leave fellowship with the LC-MS in 1961. He ends the chapter with a useful chart that succinctly sums up differences between the two synods.

Dr. Brug commits the largest share of his book to the second section, in which he at length talks about the historical formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and the doctrinal differences that make the WELS’ fellowship with this, the largest Lutheran synod in the United States, impossible. This chapter reads as a damning indictment of the ELCA as Dr. Brug provides example after example of how the ELCA has clearly departed from not only the Augsburg Confession but from Holy Scripture itself. It is a litany of woe that leads the author to conclude that “unfortunately, most American Lutherans no longer agree with Luther.” (p. 89). The current dismal plight of the ELCA is indeed a cautionary tale that we, the members of the WELS, must not forget as we deal with matters of doctrine.

In the third and fourth sections of his book, Dr. Brug writes about the WELS’ relationship with other Lutheran church bodies both in the United States and in other countries. He talks about the history and doctrinal beliefs of groups that remained independent of the major Lutheran church mergers, Lutheran apostolic succession churches, and surrogates for foreign churches from the Soviet Union, as well as the differences that caused some groups to protest and break away from both the ELCA, the LC-MS and the WELS. Dr. Brug gives special emphasis to the 1960 fissure within the WELS and the subsequent formation of the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC), and carefully defends the position of the WELS (pp. 186 ff). He ends with a discussion about international Lutheran associations and the bonds the WELS has forged with these foreign Lutheran church bodies. These last two sections contain a large number of descriptions of smaller Lutheran church bodies, including a discussion of their doctrines and their geographic distribution. Dr. Brug is careful to note that while he has tried to give an accurate tally and account of each group, gleaned from their own official publications and websites, the number and beliefs of these church bodies is often in a state of flux.

This is not a book to start reading on a whim. It is a densely written book that requires a fairly sophisticated knowledge of Christian dogma as well as a willingness to wade through a large pool of acronyms and sometimes indistinguishable church bodies and controversies. It is not always a pleasant book to read. To see how a formerly faithful friend like the LC-MS has slid backwards, how far the largest Lutheran synod in the United States, the ELCA, has fallen into heresy or how sinful pride and stubbornness has split the hearts of men and caused division and schism within the Lutheran church is disheartening. This book however is a vastly satisfying one. A persistent reader is rewarded with a meticulously researched and written, illuminating picture of the state of modern Lutheranism in the United States that does not patronize or gloss over serious discussion of doctrine. It provides an extremely thorough examination of the WELS’ beliefs and uses Scripture to show how many other Lutheran church bodies do not merely disagree with the WELS but with Holy Scripture itself. It truly makes the reader thankful to those faithful men and women in our synod who have over the years struggled and fought so that the WELS has remained faithful to God’s Word.