Theoretical
Puritan Board Professor
https://issuesetc.org/2014/01/28/is...hurch-missouri-synod-dr-Paul-zimmerman-12814/
Since I came out of what in retrospect was a fairly moderate to mildly conservative mainline Methodist church, I've nonetheless always been drawn to the Presbyterian controversy and J. Gresham Machen in particular. Especially in light of the recent and current PCA controversies such as the race issues and especially Side B, this year, I've wanted to take a closer look at some of the historical battles against liberalism, especially where they've succeeded, as was the case in the LCMS in the 1970s and the SBC in the 1980s. My goal is to both better educate myself as a lay-person and to help equip others in my own circle and elsewhere.
The above interview I found earlier today is with one of the authors of the study report commissioned by the confessional LCMS President in investigating the beliefs and teachings at the main Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in the 1970s, and it's really striking how thoroughly liberal those top institutions had become, quite in opposition to the much more conservative laity. Where I think it's especially insightful is how even though 90% of Concordia's faculty and the vast majority of its students left the seminary in protest over the confessional ouster, the confessionalist infrastructure was able to be strongly rebuilt while the liberal leavers ended up being major corrupting forces in the ELCA. The "exile" group quickly showed their colors once they were well and truly out in terms of much more liberal and heretical views being out in the open.
