Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Verbal Inspiration- A Stumbling-Block To The Jews And Foolishness To The Greeks, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Robert F. Horton is "smitten with amazement at the unobservant and unintelligent treatment of Scripture which alone has rendered the old theory of Inspiration possible for thinking men." (Revelation. and the Bible, p.120.) F. Pieper finds that "the objections to the verbal inspiration of Holy Scripture do not manifest great ingenuity or mental acumen, but the very opposite" (What Is Christianity? P. 243). Who is right? Let us examine a few more of the absurdities and sophistries employed by the moderns in their polemics against Verbal Inspiration.

Verbal Inspiration- A Stumbling-Block To The Jews And Foolishness To The Greeks, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

"The vast majority of the difficulties and objections arise from erroneous preconceptions and false presuppositions, untenable assumptions and unfounded assertions, strange misconceptions and persistent misrepresentations, by mistakes and misstatements of the questions -with all the fallacious inferences there from. … The prevalence of errors in Scripture is proclaimed ad nauseam in many of our current reviews, both theological and general; in periodicals, both religious and secular; and in many of the recent books bearing on the question." (H. M’Intoah, Is Christ Infallible and the Bible True? Pp. 473, 621.) At the risk of nauseating the reader we shall discuss a …

Freedom And The Modern Physical World Picture, Th. Graebner

Concordia Theological Monthly

A discussion of the problem of free will as affected by the new physics cannot claim finality in any sense. The modern world picture is not complete, for one thing, and we are free from agreement on the epistemological background of the doctrine of freedom. Yet the problem of the will remains the most fascinating in philosophy, and the possibilities which modem physics offers towards the solution are arresting enough to deserve more than passing notice. Any serious study of the subject unfortunately involves factors of a subjective nature, which make their results arrived at of little absolute worth. Is …

The Opinions Of Modern Scholars On The Origin Of The Various Apocryphal Books, K. G. Manz

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Before dealing with these additions individually, a word may be said about them collectively. None of them occur in the Hebrew Bible, and in only one manuscript of the Septuagint proper are they found.

Privileges And Obligations, Th. Laetsch

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the name of the Prince of Peace, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, we are assembled here for the purpose of considering ways and means to bring the Gospel of peace to a war-tom world and to build, maintain, and extend His Kingdom of Grace and peace in a world enslaved by sin and Satan, harassed by war and rumors of war, by malice and hatred and deadly enmity. Almost one hundred years ago a considerably smaller number of men came together in Fort Wayne, Ind., and in other communities of the Central …

The Alleged Contradiction Between Gen. 1:24-27 And 2:19, Alexander Heidel

Concordia Theological Monthly

The first chapter of Genesis, as every Bible student knows, has the animals made first and then man. But the second chapter is commonly held to reverse the order and to place the creation of man before that of the animals. This view is based upon the assumption that Gen. 2:18-25 constitutes a continuous piece of narrative and that the tense of the Hebrew verb with which v.19 opens therefore implies a sequence in the order of time, necessitating the following translation of v.19: "And so the Lord God formed out of the ground all the beast of the field …

All Israel Shall Be Saved, Rom. 11:26, V. Bartling

Concordia Theological Monthly

"All Israel shall be saved." What do these words mean? The sentence must not be isolated from its context and given a meaning which collides with what precedes and follows. Paul's letters have had to submit to torture since Peter's days (2 Pet. 3:16). The history of the interpretation of our particular passage along with its setting illustrates such exegetical torture. Again and again Paul's words have been manhandled and wrested from their context.

The Opinions Of Modern Scholars On The Origin Of The Various Apocryphal Books, K. G. Manz

Concordia Theological Monthly

The books which are ordinarily included in the Apocrypha of the Old Testament are the following: 1 Esdras, 9 chapters; Tobit, 14 chapters; Judith, 16 chapters; Wisdom of Solomon, 19 chapters; Wisdom of the Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), 51 chapters; Baruch, 5 chapters; Epistle of Jeremiah, 1 chapter; Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Children, 1 chapter; Susanna, 1 chapter; Bel and the Dragon, 1 chapter; 1 Maccabees, 16 chapters; 2 Maccabees, 15 chapters; 3 Maccabees, 7 chapters; 4 Maccabees, 18 chapters; Prayer of Manasseh, 1 chapter; Additions to Esther found in various chapters of the canonical book.

Verbal Inspiration- A Stumbling-Block To The Jews And Foolishness To The Greeks, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

"The objections to the verbal inspiration of Holy Scripture do not manifest great ingenuity or mental acumen, but the very opposite: they serve as a shining example of how God inflicts His just punishment upon all critics of His Word - they lose their common sense and become utterly unreasonable and illogical." (F. Pieper, What Is Christianity? p. 243.) Will any one, after studying the preceding article, still think that Dr. Pieper's judgment is too harsh?

Verbal Inspiration- A Stumbling-Block To The Jews And Foolishness To The Greeks, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Dr. Pieper says: ''The objections to the verbal inspiration of Holy Scripture do not manifest great ingenuity or mental acumen, but the very opposite." When men set out to criticize God's Word, ''they lose their common sense and become utterly unreasonable and illogical." (What Is Christianity? P. 243.) On the other hand, Dr. Edwin Lewis speaks of ''the incredible fatuity on the part of the literalist, who insists on the 'absolute inerrancy' of Scripture" (A Philosophy of the Christian Revelation, p. 55), and Dr. G. A. Buttrick declares that ''the avowal of the literal infallibility of Scripture, held to its …

Studying Case Histories, Elmer A. Kettner

Concordia Theological Monthly

A New Approach to Self-Improvement in Ministering to tlle Individual

Ministering to a congregation is not only preaching. I entered the ministry laboring under the false impression that it is. Didn't all my friends urge me to study for the ministry because I had won the county oratorical contest two years in succession? Didn't I learn from the Apology itself that "there is nothing which holds people with the church more effectively than a good sermon"? Didn't Luther have so many hearers because he was a good preacher? I would develop my preaching and build up a congregation by "compelling …

Some Notes On The Life And Works Of Catherine Winkworth, Carl S. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The change in the wording of my topic I ask you not to take amiss. To treat the "Life and Works of Catherine Winkworth" in one conference paper would demand more time than you would wish to devote to this topic and would tax too greatly the research facilities which I have had at hand. I have called this paper "Some Notes on the Life and Works of Catherine Winkworth" because of the unevenness and lack of balance which the subsequent pages will display, greater emphasis being placed on one or two topics than upon others. I had to do …

Verbal Inspiration- A Stumbling-Block To The Jews And Foolishness To The Greeks, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

It is unworthy of a Christian to charge Holy Scripture with errors. - It might be well to emphasize and elaborate some of the points touched upon in the preceding articles. First, it is unworthy of a Christian to let fallible men exercise authority over Scripture. It is a shameful thing for a Christian theologian to revise and correct Scripture on the authority of some historian or some professor of natural history. Theologians are doing just that.

The Christian's Attitude Towards His Government And On War, Louis J. Rohem

Concordia Theological Monthly

The sedes doctrinae for the doctrine of civil government is Rom.13:1-7. Literally translated: "Let every soul (pasa psyche) be subject to the superior powers." The plural, exousiai, is used, denoting not merely government in the abstract but in concreto, the persons as bearers of the divine office. In Titus 3:1 we have the same plural, "principalities and powers." Officers of the government are also designated as "Caesar," Matt. 22:21, and as "the king as supreme and governors," 1 Pet. 2:14.

Modern Humanism, F. E. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Humanism,'' in the words of Walter Lippmann, "to replace the conception of man as the subject of a heavenly King takes as its dominant pattern the progress of the individual from helpless infancy to self-governing maturity." Modem Humanism has been labeled as scientific or literary or philosophic humanism and more recently as Religious Humanism. Humanism parades under the name of religion and claims to be "a cult or belief calling itself religious but substituting faith in man for faith in God." C. F. Potter, an exponent of so-called Religious Humanism, defines it as "faith in the supreme value and self-perfectibility …

Verbal Inspiration- A Stumbling-Block To The Jews And Foolishness To The Greeks, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

We are asked to give up the doctrine of verbal inspiration because of the alleged erroneousness of the Bible. The moderns are asking us to do that. And our own flesh is suggesting it. We find it impossible to do so. One reason for that is that the arguments advanced by the rationalists against the infallibility of Scripture are in conflict with sound reason. We shall demonstrate this in a later article, and that demonstration will serve a good purpose.

Verbal Inspiration- A Stumbling-Block To The Jews And Foolishness To The Greeks, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

The moderns look upon Verbal Inspiration as an evil, unclean thing. They call it a foul spook.

The Resurrection Of Saints At The Death Of Christ, Martin Graebner

Concordia Theological Monthly

The death of Jesus on the cross was accompanied by some astounding miracles, which are enumerated in Matt. 27: 51-53: "And, behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after His resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many."

Much has been said, more can be said, about each of these miracles; but this article concerns itself with, and restricts …

New Validations Of Theism., Theodore Graebner

Concordia Theological Monthly

The age-old problem of the rational proofs for the existence of a God has been given prominence in recent philosophical literature. The subject has long been in abeyance, and, in general, interest in philosophical theism has been on the wane ever since the traditional evidences were subjected to the devastating scrutiny of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Only in Roman Catholic handbooks of systematic theology and of metaphysics the time-honored arguments for the existence of God are submitted as scientifically valid. Revival of interest in the subject is chiefly due to contributions of certain English philosophers to the discussion of …

Luther's Spiritual Martyrdom And Its Appeasement, Theo. Dierks

Concordia Theological Monthly

Luther had entered the monastery in order to merit eternal life and was convinced that the life of a monk was the surest way in which to obtain the grace of God. Now, the way in which Luther sought to gain salvation was according to the Catholic doctrine of justification, with this difference, that as a monk he had taken upon himself the heaviest yoke of Christ and that he had given himself exclusively into the service of God.

The Bible - Is It The Word Of God, Or Does It Merely Contain The Word Of God?, Ed. Koehler

Concordia Theological Monthly

Whether the Bible is the Word of God or whether it merely contains the Word of God has been a matter of controversy ever since higher criticism applied its dissecting-knife to the Sacred Record. While not bold enough to discard the entire Book as a human fabrication, men held that beside some divine truths the Bible contained quite a number of human interpolations and opinions, yea, even myths, fables, errors, and contradictions. Also in our day there are those who will not regard the whole Bible as the authoritative and inerrant Word of God, whose every statement they must accept …