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Wisdom And Law In Old Testament Wisdom Literature, Alfred Von Rohr Sauer

Concordia Theological Monthly

In this article the author shows how the Jewish understanding of wisdom and law changed, especially in the intertestamental period. Wisdom, under the influence of Hellenistic thought, became almost a personal mediator between God and man, although it had originally been used to describe a certain style of living. The word "law" also underwent a change from its first meaning of guidance, to a later meaning in Deuteronomy of "the revelation of Yahweh's will to Israel," to the final identification of law with wisdom as the mediator between God and His creation, including especially man.

Kosmos-Men Or Men For The Kosmos, Donald Heinz

Concordia Theological Monthly

Kosmos is a key theological term in the Gospel of John. The author of the Fourth Gospel chose this term to signal his concept of men without God, men in need of God, men in rebellion against God, men who would decide against God when confronted with His Sent One. The Christian church has often found it easy to look out into the world to see what John was talking about. The overtones of the English word "world" as a translation of "kosmos" have helped the church· deceive itself theologically.

Different Ministries, Different Means, One God! -A Theological Opinion On The Racial Issue, Kenneth F. Korby

Concordia Theological Monthly

Consideration of the racial issue in the context of social reform has often been marked by a profound confusion of the Law and the Gospel. As a result, rather ill-defined issues have been confounded by a darkening of the light itself. The Law has not been used lawfully, and the Gospel has not been employed evangelically. The church in relation to culture has been seen as a "Statue of Liberty" that bears the torch of social reform, holding it high in the air as she leads mankind to a better society. She has been viewed as the "conscience of society," …

Situationism And Law In Christian Ethics, Paul Jersild

Concordia Theological Monthly

Our purpose in these pages is to focus on the question of law in Christian ethics and consider in what sense we can speak of the "law of God." This question is raised in a quite critical manner in situation ethics, and for that reason we shall discuss the subject in relation to this approach, and particularly in relation to the work of Joseph Fletcher. Our concern is to present a theological basis for the law-a basis that is notably lacking in situation ethics - and seek to clarify the relationship between love and law in the Christian understanding.

Freedom In Christ-Gift And Demand, Edgar Krentz

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Freedom," a word we often hear and a concept we highly prize, is surprisingly rare in the New Testament. A rapid survey of the words eleutheria, eleutheria, and eleutheros in a concordance will show that in any sense other than the sociological (free man as opposed to slave) the term is practically confined to Paul. He is the only one to use freedom consistently in a religious sense.

The Relationship Between Dogmatics And Ethics In The Thought Of Elert, Barth, And Troeltsch, Edward H. Schroeder

Concordia Theological Monthly

A concern for dogmatics and a concern for ethics do not always go together. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, for example, has always had a strong dogmatic tradition, but has in general been uninterested in what is commonly called ethics. But this is the opposite of the situation in many other American denominations. To put the problem into a broader perspective, what is the relationship between dogmatics and ethics? A helpful approach is to study the distinctive answers given by Werner Elert, Karl Barth, and Ernst Troeltsch, which prove to be distinctive not only because their personal theological convictions …

The Law-Gospel Tension In Jeremiah, Theodore M. Ludwig

Concordia Theological Monthly

The relationship between judgment and grace is a basic question in Biblical interpretation. God's fierce judgment and His unconditional grace stand side by side in the Biblical testimony, and on unresolved tension exists between these two aspects of God's self-disclosure. The tendency among Bible scholars today is to try to resolve this tension by building a "bridge" between judgment and grace, by some theological interpretation which demonstrates that God's judgment on His people leads directly to their salvation. In the study of the Book of Jeremiah the tension is commonly resolved by the idea of God's judgment as a disciplinary …

The Will Of God In The Life Of A Christian, Eugene F. Klug

Concordia Theological Monthly

In what has been called "the greatest piece of theological writing" to come from his pen, The Bondage of the Will, Luther scores his contemporary Erasmus very sorely because of his unwillingness to assert plainly and forthrightly each and every truth which the Scriptures contain. Erasmus took a stance frequently duplicated today when theologians contend that Scripture does not contain propositional truth. Although we grant, of course, that it does not embrace formulations like a dogmatics textbook, the fact is that Scripture, as Luther reminded Erasmus, contains many doctrinal assertions which must be expressed and defended. "Take away assertions," Luther …

The Christian Answer To The Ethical Problem: A Study Of Catechism Question Number 170, Dale E. Griffin

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Reformation doctrine of justification by faith without the deeds of the Law has been frequently questioned and declared to be injurious to the moral and ethical lives of the children of God.

Are We Preaching A Gospel Free From Law?, Everard Hinrichs

Concordia Theological Monthly

Let us state the question which heads this paper more specifically: When we speak of the Gospel (grace, forgiveness of sin, Cross of Christ, Christ Crucified), is it permissible to mix elements of the Law into this concept? One would like to view this question as rhetorical, having for its answer the strongest possible negative. In view of its subject matter, however, one is left with a sense of that kind of interrogative which anticipates a negative answer yet searches deeply for whatever reason may motivate it.

The Proper Distinction Between Law And Gospel And The Terminology Visible And Invisible Church, F. E. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Ecclesiastical, or dogmatical, terminology has proved to be a convenient tool to convey Scriptural truths succinctly and precisely and to reject erroneous views. However, ecclesiastical terminology may also become a barrier to a common understanding and may actually be the cause that two partners in a conversation talk past each other. The usus loquendi also in ecclesiastical terminology is never constant. The terminology adopted in the Chalcedonian Creed is a case in point. The English theologian unfamiliar with Greek thought patterns may encounter some difficulty in understanding the terms after they have been transferred from Greek to Latin, thence to …

Are We Really Preaching The Gospel?, Elmer A. Kettner

Concordia Theological Monthly

With all of our glorying in the Gospel and our striving to retain purity of doctrine, is it possible that there is too little preaching of the Gospel in The Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod? It's not only possible; I fear that it's highly probable. This is not a blanket accusation against every pastor in Synod. One can judge only from the sermons that one hears and reads. Nor is this written to be sensational or critical. In this respect I am perhaps "the chief of sinners"; I have sometimes by-passed the Gospel. The Scriptures remind us to "exhort one another …

Our Life Of Faith, W. F. Beck

Concordia Theological Monthly

But a man is no statue. He, not God, does the believing. Like the sensory process of seeing or of hearing, believing is active as well as passive. It is not a pressed flower in a book, but a living plant which receives nourishment only to grow and produce fruit.

Reconciliation And Justification, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Since the Fall the original relationship between God and man is destroyed. The free communion of Paradise, sustained by mutual love, has been changed to enmity. Man henceforth lives in an estrangement from God and in enmity toward God. The whole bent of his mind is diametrically opposed to God, and the whole course of his life is a progressive and climactic contradiction to his Creator. Of and by himself he cannot get back to his God, nor does he want to. If he is to be helped in his blindness and his perversity, he must be rescued, saved. Our …

Lectures On Galatians, Wm. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The saving Gospel we have been learning is also the social Gospel we shall be learning.

"Brethren, ye were called unto freedom. Only use not this freedom for an opening of the flesh." Freedom is to be used, not abused for a cloak of wickedness, 1 Pet. 2: 16. A frightful abuse of freedom was that of the Anabaptists at Muenster, in Westphalia, at the time of the Reformation.

Lectures On Galatians, Wm. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Christ became a curse for us.

Why do you not jump up quivering from this electric shock?

Christ, the Only-begotten of the Father, in the bosom of the Father from eternity, in the glory of the Father-this majestic Christ became a curse for us.

A startling statement! What is it all about?

Suggested Thoughts On The Question: Can We Escape Both Traditionalism And Liberalism, O. A. Geiseman

Concordia Theological Monthly

History reveals that the visible Church of God has periodically tended to decline and degenerate. Think how true that is of the period from Adam to Noah; Noah to Abraham; Abraham to Moses; Moses to Elijah; Elijah to the Captivity; Ezra to Christ; Apostolic Age to the Reformation; Reformation to our own day.

Die Rechts Handhabung Von Gesetz Und Evangelium Die Wichtigate Theologenkunst, M. Willkomm

Concordia Theological Monthly

Die rechts Handhabung von Gesetz und Evangelium die wichtigate Theologenkunst (The right application of Law and Gospel is the important art of theology)

The Active Obedience Of Christ, Th Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

The vicarious satisfaction rendered by Christ includes, besides His suffering and death, His fulfilment of the divine Law given to man in place of man (loco hominum). In other words, in order to satisfy the divine justice, Christ not only bore the penalty of man's disobedience of the Law, but also rendered in His holy life that obedience to the Law which man is obligated to render, but does not render (active obedience of Christ, obedientia. Christi activa). As our guilt and punishment was imputed to Christ, so also our obligation to keep God's Law , Gal. 8, 13; 4, …