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Brief Studies, Arthur Carl Piepkorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

The Church of God, World Headquarters

The Secret Of God's Plan: Studies In Ephesians, Martin H. Scharlemann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Verse 9 of chapter 1 of Ephesians provides a good general tide to highlight one basic theological emphasis of the letter. There the Greek, literally translated, makes reference to "the mystery of His will." The Revised Standard Version in this case retains just that wording from the Authorized Version.

Homiletics, George W. Hoyer, Martin H. Franzmann, Harvey Von Harten Iii

Concordia Theological Monthly

Easter Kind of People

Chapel Address

Editorial: The Task Ahead, Herbert T. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

September marks the beginning of a new academic year at Concordia Seminary and provides a natural stimulus to look at the task ahead of us. It promises to be an exciting year: a major task force is subjecting the total curriculum to analysis. We may not recognize the place after they are through. This would be good in the eyes of many pastors, students, and faculty. The students set another ball of curriculur revision in motion last year. Unfortunately, only one-third of that group will be on campus this year. In the judgment of some, the Denver convention of The …

Theological Education: Crisis And Renewal, Arthur Carl Piepkorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the course of the confessional revival in the Church of the Augsburg Confession during the 19th and 20th centuries, Lutheran theologians interpreted the statements of the Symbolical Books about the sacred ministry in three typical ways.

Book Review. - Literatur, Lewis W. Spitz Sr.

Concordia Theological Monthly

Book Review. - Literatur

A Step Behind The Stars, Roger B. Kronmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The following sermon was preached by the Reverend Roger B. Kronmann, pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, St. Louis, Mo. (The American Lutheran Church), at the first eucharistic celebration at Concordia Seminary after the declaration of pulpit and altar fellowship with The American Lutheran Church by The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which operates the seminary. Pastor Kronmann also participated in the celebration of the sacrament. Those who heard the sermon and took part in the service asked that the sermon appear in this journal as one indication of our joy in this new manifestation of Christian fellowship.

The Mission On Which We Are Sent, Paul E. Jacobs

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Affirmations on the Mission of the Church which The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod adopted at the Detroit convention in 1965 are part of the evidence of the ongoing struggle of one part of the church to understand what and why the church is in the world. The struggle has not been easy nor has it been without conflict. The affirmations call us to see the church's mission in terms of people rather than church structures. They compel us to wrestle with the standards of comfort and convenience by which we continually serve ourselves. They plead with us to …

The Particularity Of The Gospel: Good News For Changing Times, John H. Elliott

Concordia Theological Monthly

Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou, who changest not, abide with me." In this transitional period of modern history when change and change by revolution are the order of the day, the plaintive plea of the popular hymn seems to assume an ever more urgent note. But the question is this: How effectively, if at all, can the notion of the unchangeableness of God expressed in this hymn aid an atomic age society in coping with population explosions, sexual, racial, and campus revolutions, and the threat of worldwide nuclear annihilation? Can men of our time indeed …

The Gospel And The Ecumenical Movement, Robert P. Scharlemann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The first conference on "Life and Work," held in Stockholm in 1925, appealed to Christians to repent the divisions among them and to make the gospel the decisive power in all areas of life. This conference - the "Nicea of ethics," as it came to be called-was not summoned to discuss the theological or dogmatic questions which divide the churches; it was called to address the churches' task of working together in the public life. The invitation declared the world situation to be so serious that Christians could not afford to await the reunion of churches before setting "hearts and …

The Gospel And The Mission Task Of The Church, Roland B. Miller

Concordia Theological Monthly

Here we seem to be on safe ground. If the gospel and the mission task of the church do not belong together, what does? The gospel reveals a God whose very nature is missionary, and it constitutes the people of God whose very esse is missio. The gospel's good news, absolutely good and absolutely news, creates the mission and determines its nature, extent, and urgency. The gospel and mission go hand in hand. What could be more obvious than this?

The Gospel And Mass Communication, Martin E. Marty

Concordia Theological Monthly

The gospel and its mission are effected in a world which they do not have to themselves. Others also build community by offering sôtêria and shalôm. In our time the mass communicators are decisive, and those who care both for gospel and world have to come to some sort of understanding of communication.

The Gospel, The Pastor, And "Culture.", Warren Rubel

Concordia Theological Monthly

Actually the word "culture" continues to evoke an unmanageable number of responses from most of us. So much so that we need to distinguish quickly among a number of ideas clustering around the term in order to place the understandably complex relationships among the Christian gospel, the pastor, and culture in a meaningful if limited perspective. Here, after offering a quick sketch of some of the main currents and crosscurrents surrounding culture today, we attempt to suggest a rough plot for personal action. Our assumption is that the pastor as perpetual "student and literary worker" will fill in the details …

The Gospel Approach To Counseling, Kenneth Siess

Concordia Theological Monthly

Pastors are discovering today that the issue of pastoral counseling comes up repeatedly, both in their pastoral practice and in their study. A survey conducted several years ago revealed that of the people interviewed 42 percent indicated that they sought out a clergyman as their first source for help in an emotional crisis in their lives. Most pastors can attest readily to the reality of such a statistic. Day after day they are being sought out by people who find themselves in some kind of stress and are looking for help. In response to this demand pastors are becoming increasingly …

The Gospel And Its Freedom Today: A Foreword, Carl S. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The proclamation of the gospel with its message of freedom in Christ Jesus is the compelling drive of the churchman's life. To say that the unifying principle of his life's work is the furtherance of the gospel is to say that he is conscious of the basic specification of his task. But it is saying more than that. It postulates a commitment, a conscious program, and the ability to carry out the task. It permeates the churchman's being and total personality, his dealings with his fellow servants, and his conscious evaluation of them and of self.

The Gospel Promise To Abraham, Norman C. Nagel

Concordia Theological Monthly

"How were the people in the Old Testament saved?" That question is raised by students of the Scriptures in many contexts. The wary teacher usually responds by asking for a definition of the word "saved." A related question is posed this way: ''What is the nature of the gospel in the Old Testament?" Such queries open the door to a flood of concerns about the relationship between the Testaments. That flood will not abate in the wake of this brief article. The ravens and doves of biblical theology will hardly be satisfied with anything less than a preservation of past …

The Gospel And The Theological Task, John H. Tietjen

Concordia Theological Monthly

"I'm no theologian, but …. " You have heard the statement many times. After a learned presentation by a theological professor at a pastoral conference a parish pastor rises to add his wisdom to the discussion and begins with those words, most often to take exception to something the professor has said. A delegate to a church convention utters them to convince his fellow delegates of the practical, down-to-earth advice he is about to offer, usually stated in very specific theological terms in spite of his introduction.

The Gospel And The Spiritual Life Of The Pastor, John Damm

Concordia Theological Monthly

And yet, though the requirements of this biblical and confessional call to a life of personal prayer and meditation have not changed, the circumstances of contemporary life apparently make it difficult for today's busy pastor to fulfill these requirements. William Hulme suggests that it is often embarrassing to question a person about his prayer life. "Well, it's not what it should be" is the usual response.

The Gospel And Life In Preaching, Andrew M. Weyermann

Concordia Theological Monthly

With a twinkle in his eye and skepticism in his voice a clergyman asked recently, "What, in your opinion, is a good sermon?" One almost despairs of giving an answer. There are so many styles of preaching and so many different kinds of people listening that it appears hopeless to try to give a definition of good preaching which would hold true for everyone in every situation. Even the so-called experts often do not agree. Every seminary has its tales of students who submit the same sermon to two homiletics professors and receive contradictory criticisms from them. The faithful often …

The Gospel And The Urban Crisis, Arthur R. Simon

Concordia Theological Monthly

The urban crisis compels us to reexamine the gospel. It gives the lie to our arrogant supposition that we proclaim the gospel in all its truth and purity. It shows that what we have passed along as pure gospel is really the gospel shaped by cultural accretions. Furthermore, the urban crisis prompts us to confess that the gospel is not believed and understood faithfully when it is viewed as a message detached from its worldly surroundings, because the gospel encompasses a way of life that comprehends in one seamless robe the words that express the good news as well as …

The Gospel And Political Structures, Jobst Schoene

Concordia Theological Monthly

The situation which suggests this theme is unique in more than one respect. Hardly ever in the history of theology has there been such intensive and impassioned questioning and contention concerning the relations between the gospel and political structures as today. That this is true also of the discussion within the Lutheran churches becomes evident the moment one investigates the problems posed by the concepts "gospel'' and "political structures." The rapid change of the political structures all over the world renders the answers from the Lutheran tradition, which have only too often been identified with the statements of Scripture and …

Gospel Freedom, Robert H. Smith

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Western world has understood freedom in two basic ways. For one school of thought freedom is the right and the power to do what one wishes. A man is not free if he is behind bars or in a captive nation or lying crippled in a hospital - no matter what his state of mind. Persons or powers beyond his control dispose his life and dictate orders to him, and to say that he is free is to play fast and loose with the language.

The Gospel And The Smalcald Articles, Walter R. Bouman

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Smalcald Articles (hereafter abbreviated as S. A.) provide us with an excellent focus for the problems and possibilities which the 16-century confessional documents pose for 20th-century Lutheranism. The fact of our historical distance from the 16th century confronts us with the most obvious problems.

The Gospel In The Medieval Church, Carl A. Volz

Concordia Theological Monthly

A curious phenomenon of Protestant and Lutheran historiography since the 17th century has been a studied neglect of the millennium labeled by Renaissance scholars as the "Middle Ages." One reason for this indifference lies in the popular notion that the Reformation was preceded by a thousand years of sub-Christian superstition during which the strong Pauline accent of justification by grace through faith on account of Christ was almost totally ignored. By coloring these centuries dark, the reformers tend to stand in bolder relief as heroic men of God who appeared to correct long-standing abuses in the church. The more sharply …

A Tribute To An Evangelical Ministry, Arthur C. Repp

Concordia Theological Monthly

One can hardly speak of a Fuerbringer without bringing in some church history. This is especially true of Alfred O. Fuerbringer, who traces a line of ministers as forebears back to the 17th century through his father's side, and two centuries farther back on his grandmother's side, including one of the signers of the Formula of Concord in 1577-1580 (Martinus Bungerus). He has an even more intimate relationship with the Missouri Synod, for his grandfather was one of the Saxon founders. Two of his predecessors to the presidency of Concordia Seminary were related to him, C. F. W. Walther, who …

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.

Justification By Works: Fate And The Gospel In The Roman Empire, Robert L. Wilken

Concordia Theological Monthly

A prominent theme in the Christian writings of the second and third centuries is that men are "rewarded and punished according to the quality of their works." It is sounded in the middle of the second century by Justin Martyr in his First Apology: "We have learned from the prophets and declare as the truth, that penalties and punishments and good rewards are given according to the quality of each man's action." A century later, Origen, in Contra Celsum, lists this belief as an article of faith alongside the resurrection and virgin birth.

Alfred O. Fuerbringer Bibliography, Nolan R. Bremer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Alfred O. Fuerbringer Bibliography

Editorial, George W. Hoyer, Arthur Carl Piepkorn, Herbert M. Zorn, Oliver R. Harms

Concordia Theological Monthly

Denver, Theological Comments

Will the Decision on Fellowship at Denver Make a Difference?

Fellowship and the Younger Sister Churches

Synodical Conventions: A Theological Perspective

Documentation: A Response To Some Critical Questions, Reuben C. Baerwald

Concordia Theological Monthly

Many critical questions have been raised about Synod’s New York resolution on fellowship with the American Lutheran Church(ALC). These questions challenge the reality of the doctrinal agreement and point to many problems and differences in church practice. The following material picks up many of these questions (some from a widely distributed essay, “To Join or Not to Join,” by Robert Preus), and provides a positive response.