The Inimitable Walter Dissen

The name of Walter Dissen has for decades been nearly synonymous in the Missouri Synod with unbending allegiance to the Word of God in the face of every challenge. He was a giant confessional force during the most turbulent Synodical years of the 20th century.

Walter’s service was an essential ingredient in the survival of confessional Lutheranism in the days following the walkout at St. Louis in 1974, and since then he has maintained a stalwart insistence on the inerrancy and infallibility of Sacred Scripture against all its foes. His reputation was so well known that it seemed his mere presence at conventions since then has been a source of great encouragement to generations following in holding the line against the encroachments of liberal, modernist, indeed demonic influence. He embodied the Church’s faithful response to the clarion cry of Jesus, “Beware of False Prophets.”

But Walter was ever the Christian gentleman, and this, too, provided younger pastors with the example of Christian conduct at all times. May God in His mercy continue to provide His Holy Church with confessors as constant and kind as he was. Gottesdienst joins our colleagues around the Missouri Synod in mourning his loss.

R.I.P. Walter Dissen (1931-2023).