Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

No Development Of Doctrine For Us, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

The popular theology of today stands for the development of doctrine. C. S. Macfarland declares: "Christian revelation is not confined to a closed canon, to a stereotyped letter, or a strictly defined confession." (Christian Unity in Practice and Prophecy, p. 27.) The Living Church, of Jan. 14, 1933, declares: "There has always been, and under God there always will be, a continual development of experience and doctrine as the Spirit guides the Church into more and more of the truth about Christ. . . Liberal Catholics believe that it is possible to develop a doctrine of Christ in line with …

Notes On Luther's Conception Of The Word Of God As The Means Of Grace, John Theodore Mueller

Concordia Theological Monthly

Largely perhaps through Karl Barth's emphasis on the Wort Gottes, and especially through his admonition to theologians to return to the theology of the Reformation, the doctrine of the Word of God, particularly of the Word of God as it was conceived by Luther, has once more become the special object of theological interest. What Barthian and non-Barthian theologians have written on the point has not always been in accordance with traditional orthodox theology, but the study of Luther in recent years has no doubt contributed much valuable information toward clarifying most historical points and has led many toward a …

De Opere Spiritus Sancti, L. B. Buchheimer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Article 5 of the Magna Charta of our Church bears the superscription "Of the Office of the Ministry." Specifically treated in Article XIV, it is here spoken of only in an incidental way, viz., as the office which is charged with administering the means of grace. Melanchthon wants to teach how faith is obtained, and that is through the operation of the Holy Spirit.

The Effect Of The Trend Toward Religious Schools On Public Schools, Clarence Peters

Concordia Theological Monthly

Before investigating the topic before us, it may be well for us to inquire· into the reason why some churches maintain their own schools. The reason is not that they do not appreciate the public school or the advantages which these tax-supported schools have brought to the people of America.

Johann Lorenz Mosheim's Philosophy Of History, Lewis Spitz Jr.

Concordia Theological Monthly

History as record and interpretation, just as history as past actuality, has been in constant change. Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in. illis is the inexorable law of life and of living academic disciplines as well. The history of historiography powerfully demonstrates the truism that each generation writes its own history. As the world view of humanity changes, the new criteria of evaluating the human story necessitates a reworking of the history of the past.

All Christians Believe In Justification By Faith, F. Pieper, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

There is a great diversity among the Christians. Some are strong in their faith, while others are weak Christians. Some have an excellent knowledge of the Christian doctrine, others are woefully deficient in this respect (Eph. 4:13, 14; Rom. 14:1 ff.). There are orthodox Christians and heterodox Christians. (See Chap. 1 in "Saving Faith": "Orthodoxy and membership in the Christian Church are not conterminous.") But there is full accord among the Christians on the doctrine of justification. All Christians are at one in believing that God forgives their sins by grace, for Christ's sake, without any merit of their own. …

Luther's Picture Of Christ On The Basis Of The Church Postil Sermons, Thomas Coates

Concordia Theological Monthly

It is impossible to know Luther without reading his sermons. It is impossible to understand Luther's theology without feeling the impact of his exposition of that theology in his preaching. And there is perhaps no better example of Luther's preaching than the Church Postil sermons. To read these sermons is to appreciate Luther as a man, as a preacher, as a theologian, as an exegete, and as a leader of men.

Roma Semper Eadem, L. W. Spitz

Concordia Theological Monthly

Rome ever the same! So says Rome, and her opponents agree; but there is agreement only in the choice of words, not in the sense or connotation. Rome predicates her assertion on the claim that she is the Church founded by Christ and by Him built on Peter, so that even the gates of hell cannot prevail against her. Her opponents, on the other hand, regard her merely as an organization against which the gates of hell have already prevailed in a large measure. Rome presumes to trace her organization and dogma - of course more fully developed in the …

Union Theses, Adopted By Breslau Synod And Saxon Free Church, L. W. Spitz, F. E. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

There is an inseparable union between the two bases of the Reformation, in fact, of the true Church of Christ, viz., between the doctrine that lost and condemned mankind can be saved solely by the grace of God for Christ's sake through faith (sola gratia, sola fide) and the principle that all teaching must be according to the Holy Scriptures (sola Scriptura). There can be no Christian proclamation without the proper distinction between Law and Gospel.

Essays In Hermeneutics, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Holy men of God spake as they were moved by, the Holy Ghost." Heretofore, in the circle of language and in the circle of history, we have been concentrating on the fact that "men ... spake," on the fact that God the Holy Ghost spoke in tongues in definite moments in history. We have been, therefore, concerned largely with the skills and techniques of interpretation. In the circle of Scripture we pass from skills and techniques to what is rather an attitude, a gift of God, a charisma to be prayed for. For we are now concerned with the fact …

Essays In Hermeneutics, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the circle of language the interpreter seeks to master the language in which the Scriptures were originally written; in the circle of history he seeks to master the world in which and for which the Scriptures were originally written; he strives to envisage and to keep before himself, as concretely and as plastically as may be, the geographic, social, economic, and cultural pattern in which the original proclaimers and the first hearers lived and moved. This pattern, or complex, includes also the past of which the proclaimers and hearers were the inheritors, for by the very fact that a …

Is Doctrinal Unity A Luxury?, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

By the grace of God we have been won for the proposition that the adherence to all doctrine revealed is not a luxury, but a necessity. And by the grace of God we repel, in the first place, all the arguments to the contrary. The argument is advanced that we Lutherans distinguish between fundamental and non-fundamental articles and thus eo ipso declare the non-fundamental articles to be unnecessary. Nothing could be further from the truth. To be sure, there is a great distinction between the fundamental articles and the non-fundamental ones. We say that the fundamental articles are necessary for …

Essays In Hermeneutics, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Hermeneutics is that branch of theology which sets forth the principles that are to guide us in the interpretation of Scripture; in other words, it is the theory of exegesis, or interpretation.

With Reference To The Formula Of Absolution, W. G. Polack

Concordia Theological Monthly

There is some discussion in various parts of Synod regarding our formula of absolution.

Let us say at the outset that the wording of any such formula belongs in the field of things indifferent, so long as the doctrine of the Office of the Keys is maintained. For that reason we can and do have more than one formula, namely, the Declaration of Grace, p. 6, The Lutheran Hymnal, and the Absolution, p. 16 and p. 48, The Lutheran Hymnal.

Is Doctrinal Unity A Luxury?, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Some time ago this view was expressed in the Christian Century: “In a world like ours, nothing seems to me to be less important than agreement about our theology. . . . Struggling to get such an agreement is a luxury which, perhaps, we can return to when the times are less desperate." (See Conc. Theo. MONTHLY, 1945, p. 569.) Unity in doctrine is here called a luxury; it may be a good thing for the Church to have, but the Church can get along very well without it. Her health does not require it.

Objectives Of Parish Education, Arthur C. Repp

Concordia Theological Monthly

Every religious educator, whether he be pastor, teacher, or Sunday school superintendent, must be aware of and have ID understanding of the objectives of his parish program of education. Leaders of the Church must have before them specific goals which describe in concrete terms what they are trying to effect through their program of parish education. Several considerations prompt one to make such a broad statement. To begin with, there is a tendency for every one of us to become involved in an agency or an organization to such an extent that it becomes an end rather than a means …

Discourse Of Luther On The Holy Trinity, W. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

This discourse is taken from a two-volume collection of sermons of Luther which has the title: Predigten D. Martin Luthers auf Grund von Nachschriften Georg Roerers und Anton Lauterbachs, bearbeitet von Geog Buchwald. The volumes appeared in 1925 and 1926, respectively, in the publishing house of C. Bertelsmann, Guetersloh. In the fascinating introduction Dr. Buchwald, an eminent Luther scholar, points out that the sermons of Luther published in the old editions of the Heuspostille are unsatisfactory on account of the editing process to which they were subjected. As is well known, they were not written by Luther; the notes of …

Rhetoric In The New Testament, W. A. Jennrich

Concordia Theological Monthly

It is a most natural and yet striking fact that the New Testament originally was written in Greek. This is striking because the literature of the Greek New Testament had its origin in a Hebrew background; it is natural because the Greek language was the Weltsprache in the century that gave birth to the New Testament.

The Timeless God In Time, J. T. Mueller

Concordia Theological Monthly

God is the Eternal Timeless One. That is not simply a truism, or self-evident truth, but a doctrine positively taught in Holy Scripture. Because perverted man is definitely prone to design gods after his own imperfect, circumscribed image, in stupidly literal anthropomorphism and anthropopathism often ascribing to the infinite God finite forms and other human limitations, the Holy Scriptures with great emphasis assert again and again that the living God, the Creator of all things and the Redeemer of fallen mankind, is absolutely timeless.

A Royal Priesthood, 1 Pet. 2:9, W. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

If it were not a fact with which we have been familiar since childhood days, we should be amazed to see that the Christian Church began its course without an official class of priests. The opening chapters of Acts, which report the founding of the Church, give the Apostles a prominent place in the early stages. These men served as pastors and teachers; at first the duties of almoners were incumbent on them, too. Hence the Church had leadership, but it did not have priests. The Apostles did not lay claim to such a status. In Jerusalem and Palestine in …

The Ethics Of Jesus, Alfred M. Rehwinkel

Concordia Theological Monthly

The heart and center of the Christian Gospel is Jesus and His atonement. “God made Him sin for us who knew no sin." "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" That is the essence of the Gospel according to St. Paul and all the other New Testament writers. Any attempt to change or modify this truth means to distort the Gospel and to dishonor Christ.

New Testament Light On Old Testament ''Millennialistic" Prophecies, Walter H. Koenig

Concordia Theological Monthly

Some months ago, it happened that I came to grips with an ardent disciple of Premillennialism. To meet the man's arguments, I was driven to the Bible, as I found very little help outside of it. Especially on one point did I wish clarity: How does the Holy Ghost in the New Testament apply prophetic passages which millennialists interpret literally but which we interpret spiritually? What is the basis of our spiritual interpretation of Old Testament prophecy? My paper is intended to draw out the meaning of Scripture - and it will offer an example of one of the prime …

The Term "Fear God" In The Old Testament, H. O. Keinath

Concordia Theological Monthly

The words "fear," "fearful," "fearfulness," occur rather frequently in the Bible. It would be a mistake to assume, however, that each "fear" of the King James Version is a translation of the same Hebrew word. In the Old Testament we find that no less than seventeen Hebrew words of different roots are at some time or other rendered by "fear," "fearfulness," etc., in the Authorized Version.

Religion And The Modern World Picture, Theodore Graebner

Concordia Theological Monthly

The scientific world picture has undergone greater changes in the past forty years than in the preceding four centuries. For one thing, the materialistic view which controlled the study of the cosmos has crashed. But that is not all. To adapt our idea of the physical world to the demands of reason "requires of scientific thought one of the greatest changes in orientation which it has ever had to make in its secular effort." The words are those of Louis de Broglie in the volume announced (p. 261).

The Una Sancta In Luther's Theology, F. E. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Luther's concept of the Una Sancta was first and last soteriological; not sociological, not statistical, not organizational, not eschatological. Luther's emphasis on soteriology in his definition of the Church can be understood only in the light of his theological principle. Scholastic theology had not satisfied him. Its Aristotelian method had failed to bring assurance of peace to his heart, and its autosoteric principles had been unable to quiet his conscience. The Apostle's message: "The sinner is justified by faith alone," changed Luther's theology both as to method and to content.

Haec Dixit Dominus Ii, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Men are asserting that Luther had no right to say of his teaching: "Haec dixit Dominus." All that he could say was that according to his interpretation of Scripture He said so and so; and as his opponents said the same, the matter is left in doubt; no man can be divinely sure of his doctrine.

Haec Dixit Dominus, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Is there such a thing as doctrinal certainty? Luther says: "The preacher must not pray the Lord's Prayer and ask for forgiveness of his sin after his sermon (if he be a true preacher), but must proudly declare with Jeremiah: Lord, “Thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before Thee' (Jer.17: 16); yea, he should declare boldly with Paul and all the Prophets and Apostles: 'Haec dixit Dominus, God Himself hath said this.' Et iterum: 'In this sermon I have been an apostle "and prophet of Jesus Christ. Here it is not necessary, not even good, …

Light From The Papyri On St. Paul's Terminology, Eric C. Malte

Concordia Theological Monthly

The problem of defining the type of Greek in the Pauline Epistles has, in the past, afforded ample room for much controversy. It remained for Adolf Deissmann to discover that while the language of the New Testament differs from classical Greek, it is neither "Special Greek," nor "Aramaic Greek," nor "Biblical Greek"; still less is it "tired Greek" or "bad Greek."

Evangelical Integration Of Color, Carl M. Zorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

The status of the Negro in America is rapidly changing. Our Church's work among the colored people is no more a foreign work in the deep South. Soon many Negro churches, also of our Synod, will no longer be subsidized. The economic opportunities of the Negro are being increasingly protected by law and sentiment. The sociological trends of our times emphasize the elimination of ghettos. "Without distinction of race, creed, or color'' is one of the many American shibboleths. People with Negro features are filtering into every phase of our social structure.

Notes On The "Satis Est" In Article Vii Of The Auguatana, John Theodore Mueller

Concordia Theological Monthly

"And to the true unity of the Church it is enough. "[italics our own] to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments" (Et ad venam unitatem ecclesiae satis est consentire de doctrina evangelica et administratione sacramentorum). So reads one of the most important statements in the Augsburg Confession. It is inserted between a definition of the "one holy Church" and the rejection of the Romanist teaching that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies instituted by men, should everywhere be alike. This antecedent and subsequent context must be kept in mind by all who …