--------------------" Follo'ving the Faith of Our Fathers" A P a p ~ r :J, at t1H' Conventioll of the l\.IissoUl'i'Synoi m ' V a Y l l ( , ~ in June, 1923, z'u PROF, F. BENTE. , . ~ .. " ~ ~ - ~ ~ - - - - - - - - - - - . - - -Following the Faith of Our Fathers. Venerable Fathers, dear brethren! Last year we celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of our Synod. The Bible enjoins upon Christians gratefully to remember their departed leaders and to follow and to copy their faith. Heb. 13,7 we read: "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end pf their conversation." Note the limitation: "Which have spoken unto you the Word of God." Only he is a true Christian leader who himself follows Christ and abides by His Word. But, alas! there have always been, and there still are, disloyal leaders, false teachers. Witness the founders of the numerous sects and cults! Deviating from the royal highway of Christian truth, they struck out on paths of their own, misleading their followers. The history of the Lutheran Church (America included) also records names of teachers and leaders who erred from the faith and deviated from the path. False leaders, however, must not be followed. Our plain duty is to beware of them. They are disloyal to the Captain. Noone can follow them without forsaking Christ. What of our.. fathers 1 Every Reformation Day we portray and hold up Luther as a leader whom to follow means to follow Christ. .May we sa,v the same of Walther, Wyneken, Sihler, and other sires ,,{ our Synod! Are they worthy of our followingi In their memory, last year, services of thanksgiving were held at home and abroad. Evorywhere, in all our Districts and congregations, pastors, teachers, and laymen were urged to walk in their steps. Were we justified in doing so? It goes without saying that our fathers, too, were p09r, sinful men nnd imperfectChristians. They themselves were firBt and foremost in - ~ o I i " f e s ~ { ; : ; g their {aultB. But whatever frailties and short(.mnings their lives may reveal, the outstanding f a c t - . 1 e ~ i 1 i n 8 that they were t r u ~ U 2 r j e s t s . . ? f God, close followers of Christ, leaders loyal to tllfl Captain, and teachers faithful in proclaiming the Word of Hod. They walked the narrow path, they preached the p u ~ , , " and only-saving Gospel-truth, and they strove and labored to win souls for Christ. Such being the case, the admonition stands: ".Re,rof'mber" your leaders! "Follow" your fathers! This "rem ' l e r i n g " ~ n d "following," however. dare never degenerate into blind prejudice and uncritical partisanship. We are to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good. No, there must not be found among us a worshiper of heroes or an i d ~ l i z e r of human authorities. 3 The sole auhlOrity to which we submit our faith and life is the Word aLGod. This, being in itself the convincing power of the Spirit, is in need of no human support or testimony. By this Word we also te"t and try again and again the doctrines received from our fathers. We regard nothing as true or right simpl}' because Luther "aid or did so. The same holds good with respect to the fathers of our Synod. \Vherever we follow them, we do so only because we are convinced that their faith was none other than the one true faith onee for all d e l i v ~ e d to the saints. Such is the manner in which we remember, and ought toremember, our fathers, always making sure that in following them we are in reality but following Him who said: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me," and again: "If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indc('d; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." I. Let Us Follow Our Fathers in Their Confessional Loyalty. Long-before our father8 embarked for the Kew World, the Lutheran Confessions had fallen into universal desuetude in Germany. And what were the conditions in A:ruerlca ~ True, as early as 1 7 ~ ! almost a century before the founding of our Synod, Muehlenberg-had organized the Ministerium of Pennsylvania with a constitution recognizing all of our confeilsions. But, alas! in less than fifty :years thi" synod had abandoned everything save the Lutheran nl.lJ.Ue. Tn-its new constitution of 1792 the symbols were not even mentioned. On the contrary, the Prussian Union of 1817 was held up >.ld an excellent example to follow in America. And several years late!' (l8I!) and 1822) resolutions were adopted to bring about just ~ u c h a ullion_ With the exception of tiny Tennessee not one of the ;;ix Lutheran synods existing in 1820 was loyal to our symbols. As a result, the so-called General Synod was, in the same year, organized with a constitution c o n t ~ T ~ o d ~ a s i s_whatever, not even un allusion to the Lutheran Confessions. Such were the (:ondition8 prevailing in and before 1820. And in the decades following they became still more deplorable. \\Then, in 1845, Wyneken urged the General Synod to return to the Lutheran moorings, his fervent appeal was treated as a great joke. \Vith increasing mali<-'e, coarseness, and contempt Lutheran periodicals spoke of our Confessions as "Luther's old hat, coat, and boots," as Hold rags," which the General Synod, "moving forward gloriously, had long ago forgotten." Luther and the Lutheran confessors were openly derided. November 23, 1849, Benjamin Kurtz wrote in the Lutheran Observer: "The Fathers -who are the 'Fathers' ~ They nre the children; they lived in the infancy of the Church, in the , --4. early dawn of the Gospel-day. . . We are three hundred years older than Luther and his noble ~ o a d j u t o r s and eighteen hundred years older than the primitives; theirs was the age of infancy and adoles'cence, and ours [is] that of f u l l · ~ r o w n adult manhood. They' were ,the chi1!Iren; we are the fathers; the tables are turned." Indeed, as late as 1855 these decided enemies of Lutheranism made a hold attempt to scrap the Augsburg Confession and replace it by the socalled Definite Platform, a botch document shot through and through with Reformed sentiments. Concerning the ,Lutherans whom he had met in America, Wyneken, in his renowned pamphlet' published during his stay in Germany, declared: "They have entirely abandoned the faith of the fathers." :Four years later (1845) he characterized the General Synod as "Reformed in doctrine, Methodistic in practise. and laboring for the ruin of the Church whose name "he falsely bears." In 18,:;8 Or. Sihler felt justified in speaking' of the leaders of the General Rynod a" "open c o u l l t e r f e i t e r ~ . Calvinists, Methodists, Unionists. and traitor" and destroyers of the Lutheran Church." Such WU::l the deplorahle condition of American Lutherani"m wilen our fatiwrs heg'on their work in this country. By her own children the banner of the Luthpran CllUl'eh had been h31lled down nnd trodden in the dm,t. \Vhat was Idt of the Lutheran pledge \vll", as I.lte as 11:);";0, denounced b.v Krauth, Dr. us a 111ere "solemn farce." True Lutheranism was down and out; nothing remained bOut the empty name. As a result large parts of the Lutheran Church had alJ-eady been absorbed by the Episcopalians and other sects; and the remainder was headed toward the same disa,;ter. And what stau4 did our fathers take? From the very outset it wag their object to bring hack the wayward Lutheran church"" to their home. Before their arrh'al in St. L o u i ~ , the Saxnils had Hlready "doptpd a constitution in whieh they pledged theJllsclYes to tIl(> Luth"ran symbols, And all constitution>" adopted subsequently emhodipd the same platform. .Eyery congregation which they founded nfter 183!l, the synod which they organized in 1;.<47. and all manner of organizations within local congregations or ~ y n o d . -they all were vIimted four-square on the Lutheran basi,;. Xothing daunted hy ridicule !lnd malice, Walther. Wynekcn, and Sihler unfurled th" Lutheran banner, determinately, aggre"sively, victoriously, And throughout their lives they stood bi these colors, never shirking 01' faltering in defending. them against attacks from· without or within. Our fathers restored the J.utheran symbols. the Book of Ooncord of 1580, to its origilIal place of honor and authority in the Lutheran Church. And why and how did they subscribe to these symbols? Our fathers have been charged with basing their faith and theology, not on the Scriptures, but on Luther, the Lutheran dogmaticians, and the confes"ions. What is the truth1 Indeed, they cited the symboJ.s, abo Luther and other teachers of our Church; not, however, to prove that their doctrines were true and divine, but to establish them as t r u l ~ < Lutheran and as always taught-by the Lutb.e.tanChurch. In order to prove t hat these doctrines held by the Lutheran Church are true and divine. our fathers appealed to the .Scriptures, even as l,uther and our symbols do. The Bible, sa;VH the Formula of Concord, is "the only t r u ~ . s t a n d · ani by which all teacher" and doctrines are to be judged" To this our fathers subscribed with all their hearts. Again: The true sa-:ing faith is "to be founded upon no church teachers, old or new, but only and alone upon God's Word, which is comprised in the .Scrip· tures of the hol,v pl'ophpts and apostleR as unquestionable w i t n e s s e ~ of divine truth. Such were the sentiments also of our fathers. Indepd. they were fully aware of the fact that no one could subscribe to our confessions without recogni:dng that the Scriptures alone are the norm and hasi,; of faith. ,md without at the same time rejecting 1he Yer,V attitude with which ilw,Y were falsely charged. A('(;ording to OtU father,; no Hll)Ount of quotations from Lutheran T('uehers and ,;,Ymbols, even if up to the skies, Is sufficient to 11l'OV!:' H ,;ingle doctrine us tm,-, and divino. Thp,y declared with Luther: "The \'{ord of God shall e ~ t a b l i ~ L Hrticle;; ()f faith, and no one else. !lot even an angeL" Never fur a moment did our fathers regard the Lmheran confessions as an iu",pired SOUl'(.,, and norm of truth. Nor did they f;lIhseribe to them without previous eritical invef;tigation. ()ll 1 he contrftl·y, they t('",ted, tried, and judged the symbols. their ~ t a n d a r d lwing-' tbp ~ ( ' ! ' i p t n l ' < : s , t 1 J ( ~ onl,v a priori reliable norm nf truth, ,hI' ("ther" atloptcd the Book of COlicord bpcall8f? they had faund :t.', <1,,,.'1.;'1110;'; t., b,,, in complete agreement with the. Bible,. because tilt',' iHHi fouEd tHem to the identical doctrines of the Word of (;od, I n the iormuia of Concord the Lutheran confessors declare that t h e ~ ' s n b ~ c r i b e d to the Augsburg Confession. "not because it was eonfeiispd by our theologlallS. but because it was taken f!'om. and firmly founded in. the 'Word of God," This was the reason also why our fathers adopted the IJutheran Confessions. And the manner of their subscription reveals the same splendid spirit of joyousness, straightforward honesty, and definiteness in which true Lutherans always and everywhere haye been wont to take the Lutheran pledge. Our fathers subscribed sincerely, seriously, and with all their heart. They "did not limit and restrict their sub ~ ( ' r i p t i o l l to mere fundamentals, nor to what has been called the ('onfession in the confession. nor to its thetical and antithetical dE'darutions. In a closing paragraph of the Smalcald Articles Luther protests: "These are the articles on which I must stand, and, God willing, shall 6 stand even to my death; and I do not know how to change or to yield anything in them. If any one wishes to yield anything, let him do it at the peril of his conscience." Such was the determination also of our fathers. -Brenz subscribed, declaring: "All these confessions agree with the Holy Scripture, and .. I testify in this my own handwriting that I thus hold, confess, and constantly will teach, through Jesus Christ, our Lord." Such were the sentiments also of our fathers. -Brixius wrote: "I subscribe to the Articles of the reverend Father Martin Luther and confess that hitherto I have thus believed and taught, and by the Spirit of God I shall continue thus to believe and teach." Such was the mind also of our fathers. In the Preface to the Book of Concord the confessors of 1580 declare: "Therefore we also have determined not to depart even a finger's breadth either from the subjects themselves or from the phrases" of the Confession. In the Preface to the Thorough Declaration we read with respect to the Augsburg Confession: "\Ve intend also, by the grace of the Almighty, faithfully to abide until our end by this Ohristian Confession. . .. And it is out' purpose, neither in this nor in any other writing, to recede in the least from that Confession." Such was the Christian spirit and manner, in which our fathers also were committed to the Lutheran symbols. The "Bpirit J of .Missonri" has frequently been spoken of with aversion. But the I truth is that the spirit of our fadlers was in every respect none other than the sincere, serious, straightforward, and earnest spirit of our early confessors themselves, Luther included. Indeed, our fathers were both faithful Bible Christians and genuine Lutherans, and the latter not in addition to, but because of, the former. Genuine Lutherans, -for they adhered most faithfully to the doctrines set forth in our symbols. True Bible Christians, for the:;' adopted these symbols only because they had found them to be drawn from the Word of God, which alone they recognized as the final and infallible norm of Christian truth. For this reason, too, our fathers adopted the old Lutheran slogan and placed it at the head of the Lutheraner: "Gofies Wort und Luther's Lehr' Ver{!('lIft nun und nimmermehr." Speaking of our fathers, the sainted Dr. Koren truly said: "Die Missourier hei.ssen nicht bloss Luthe1'aner; sie sind es auch." And what was their success 1 Congregations, synods, and theological schools restricted in doctrine and practise to the Book of Concord, published 350 years ago, cannot thrive in free and progressive America! -such was the unanimous verdict of the sects as well as the Lutherans when our fathers began their work in this country. All were agreed that confessionalism would prove a millstone about the neck of Missouri. In an address delivered March 10, 1846, the famous Reformed theologian Dr. Philip Schaff maintained that it was "impossible to 7 build a confessional Lutheran Church (let alone the exclusive Lutheranism of the :Formula of Concord) on the Refonlled English soil of America"; that it would be "easier to direct the course of the Mississippi to Bavaria than to convert the Chinese through German sermons." In the Lutheran Observer, Benjamin Kurtz, denouncing our fathers as obsolete "resurrectionists of elemental, undeveloped, halting, stumbling, and staggering humanity" and as priests ready "to immolate bright meridian splendor on the altar of misty, mu:-;ky dust," declared that the men of Missouri, "bent on backward," were of necessity bound to go "downward." They aII protested: You Missourians are entirely out of date, you are altogether too narrow, too bigoted, too rigid, too rigorous, too exduslve, to prosper anywhere. The road of confessionalism will lead you to inevitable ruin. These dire prognostications, however, did not impress or move our fathers in the least. They knew that it was God's truth for which they ~ t o o d . They were persuaded that divine truth is nowhere too narrow, too bigoted, too rigorous, too exclusive, but just right ( , ~ · e r y w h e r e . And they believed that it is safer to go down eonfessing the truth than to live by falsehood and by disloyalty to God and His Word. Moreover, our fathers were fully convinced that the only road which could lead Ollr Church to real success was the very one which they had cho>'en. They fully realized that a Lutheran Church that name could survive only as long as she remained faithful to her principles. Lutheranism, they held, could not live without tho J.utheran standards. On the other hand, our fathers were persuaded that true Lutherillli"m. as it does, for nothing but the pure Word of God ul';)lw. wa;; able to thrive anywhere. They knew that, while Calvinism, Puritalli:-;m, etc., depended for their success on favorable legislation, Lutherllnism, in order to livo and prosper, was not in need of any ('xtt'l'nal help,; or props whatever. Moreover, they were satisfied that, the freer the political atmosphere, the better Lutheranism would be able to develop in harmony with its own innate principles and expand by its own inherent p.)wer and resident spiritual forces. Our fathers have been charged with lack of vision. And true, their foresight was not a mere matter of shrewd calculation. Theirs was a spiritual vision, which saw things by faith and in the light of God's Word and promises. And the facts have shown long ago that this was the true vision, keener and farther-reaching than the sight of calculating reason. Even such critics of our fathers as Schaff lived long enough to see that their prophecies were false. Surely history has fully vindicated the faith of our fathers. The ship which they launched 1847 in . Chicago has fully demonstrated its seaworthiness. 8 No, indeed, the Lutheran eymbols did not· prove to be a mill. stone about the neck of our Synod, but rather a life-buoy that kept her afloat for these many;many years. And as for America with its principles of free thought, free speech, free prese, and complete liberty of conscience and religion -why, nowhere in the world ,did genuine Lutheranism ever come out purer and thrive better than in our country. Read our Statistical Yeaf'-booN: for 1922. It tells the story. Its figures are eloquent with the success of our fathers! Behold this venerable body Ilssembled at the very place where Wyneken began his work (18:38) eighty-five ye!lrs ago and Sihler (1843) eighty years ago! Its pastors, teachers, leaders, and congregations here present or represented all subscribe to the Lutheran symbols in the spirit and manner of our fathers. Surely the labor of our fathers was not in vain. Furthermore, our fathers must be_credited also with having in 11 large meallure given strength and impetus to confessional movements outside of our Synod, at home as well as abroad. Abroad: in Germany, in Alsae-e, in Australia, and South America. But especially at home; for to-day there cannot be found in America a single Lutheran synod that flouts our Confessions as they did in the early days of our fathers. Walther was the leaven in the lump. He himself saw it working. As early as 1846 he felt justified in stating: "No doubt but God has arisen in order to remove the rubbish under which our precious Evangelical Lutheran Church was bnried for a long time also here ill America." And in 1866, in a letter to Pastor Brunn: "It is true that our testimony extending over a period of twenty years has by the grace of God cooperated in caUlling some synods to speak again of the Confession, Ilnd to base and pledge themselves upon it, at least formally." The Ohio Synod, the Iowa Synod, the synods constituting the former General Council, the synods of the former United Synod in the South, etc., all are committed to our symbols. Even the General Synod finally consented to take the Lutheran, pledge. And the United Lutheran Church, the Yerger of 1918, adopted a constitution with a doctrinal basis that includes all Lutheran symbols. More or less markedly, therefore, the entire Lutheran Church of America bears the stamp of Walther. Of course, this does not signify that they all live up to the Lutheran standards. "It is a long stride," says Walther, "from the formal acknowledgment of the symbols to a true knowledge of them and a truly Lutheran spirit and the consequent discipline of doctrine and life." But it does signify and mean that the powerful waves ()f confeseionalism emanating from our fathers reached far beyond their own boundaries. Brethren, let Us follow our' fathers. May we never grow indifferent and disloyal to our symbols! May they always govern our teaching and preaching as well as our life and practiseI Wherever, in the past, Lutherans adhered faithfully to their Confeaaions, they flourished. But wherever these symbola were trodden in the· dust, the ,Lutheran Church always fell an easy prey to her enemies: to unionism, sectarianism, liberalism, and infidelity. Accordingly, dear brethren, if we shall but continue to walk in the steps of our fathers, God will continue to bless us even as. our fathers. By His grace, we, too, shall prove to be real builders of the Church of the pure Word and Sacraments. May there never be an arm uplifted in our midst, therefore, to haul down the flag which our fathers hoisted I May there lli:\ver be an effort made to remove our beloved Synod from the foundation that made her strong and influential! Everywhere Christians are in need of the Lutheran Confessions, but nowhere more so than in our own country, the paradise of freedom and religious liberty. Where cults and sects galore freely fly their colors, the Scripture light of Lutheranism dare not remain under the bushel. When falsehood is broadcasted, the pure Gospeltruth eIl'trusted to our Church must strive for an ever wider hearing. I,et us therefore keep our flag afloat, -always following the faith of our fathers! II. Let Us Follow Our Fathers in Their Firm Adherence to the Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible. When our fathers embarked for America, the old Fatherland was still in the grip of vulgar rationalism. This demon had dethroned revelation, subjected the Scripture to carnal reason, denied its supernaturalism, eiiminated its miracles, scrapped the creeds, rejectf,d all doctrines specifically Chri.!:Itian, ostracized Christ's atoning sacrifice, and revived the old heathen belief that man is saved by efforta of his own in leading a decent moral iife. Such were the views also ()£ the rationalists, by whom our fathers (Loeber, Keyl, Walther, Buenger, Sibler, etc.) were surrounded and instructed in schools, <:olleges. and universities. The well-known story of how Wyneken was e:lCamined for the holy ministry by Ii rank infidel who scoffed at the miracles of the Bible. illustrates the condition then prevailing everywhere. Spiritual death reigned supreme. Only a few oases remained, where the grace of God had kept the living waters flowing. Our fathers were among the first to regain the old Gospel-truth. And once having experienced its life-giving power, they loathed the teachings of the rationalists, even as the rationalists abhorred the ·doctrine of grace. When, therefore. our fathers began to live, confesB, preach, and practise in accordance with their new convictions, they met with opposition everywhere. They were derided and rim10 culed as muekers, pietists, and hypocrites by the multitude, and harassed and persecuted ,as fanatics and disturbers of the peace by rationalistic superintendents and civil magistrates. As a result the fear began to grow on our fathers that, in the stifling atmosph,er6 surrounding them, their faith, and especially the faith of their children, could not !'urvive and certainly would not be able to e,,}land alld develop its being. They ·longed for a country where they might believe, and teach. and preach, and practi,,;e, and wor"hip according to the dictates of their consciences, unhampered by authorities, civil or ecclesiastical. And what was it that bound their c0118cienees 1 It was the 1Iol," Bible. which they regarded as the Word of God, inspired by the lInl,v Ghost, inerrant in all its statements, the, norm of faith and lif", binding on every Christian and Christian congregation. Their principle wal:!: "To the Law and to the Testimony 1" They bclieved even a14 Christ say,,: "The Scripture cannot be broken." They followed the faith of Paul, "believing all things which nrc written in the Law and in the Prophets." 'With the .Formula of Concord they declared: "\Ve receive and embrace with all our heart the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear fountain of Israel, the only true stalldard b,v which all teachers and dOl'trines nre to be judged." A d(',u word of Scripture made heaven and earth a place tou narrow for Luther. The same was true of our fathers. They held: "Sail/lum londa, causa finita -Scriptures having spoken, the question is decided, settled." The fundamental premise of all their teaching, pr('uehing, writing, arguing, and laboring was: "The Bible is infallihle," 'With childlike faith they believed every fact and doc-trine there recorded: creation of h0uven and earth, the miraclei'. the rC'yelations, and the prophecies; Chri,.;t's incarnation, virgin hirth, atoning saerifice, and resurrection; supernatural regeneration. justitication, and-eternal salvation. There was not a $ingle stntement of the Bible to which our fathers took e"ccption. "Thc dearest child of faith is the miracle." This favorite quotation froll! Goethe was reversed by our fathers. Faith, they said. does not beget, but is begotten by, the supernatural facts and truths of Christianity. The miraculous is not the product, but the cam,e of faith. .From beginning to end redemption and salvation. they hdd, is the work, not of natural resident forees in man, b11t of inter\'('ning supernatural divine grace and power. Indeed, as you all wen know, our fathers thoroughly purged theology, notably the doctrines of justification, conversion, and eleetion by grace alone, from the leaven of every kind of unbelief. Their theology was Scriptural throughout. From rind to core it was nowhere infected with the virus of rationalism. And thi... attitude they never abandoned or modified in the least. 11 W'hen our fathers bade farewell to the Old World, hopeful signs of a oo:niing revival of faith began to multiply in Germany. Hengst1'!nberg, Claus Harms, and other theblogi.ans were zealous in reRioring the old Christian truths and in purging the sanctuary from the desecrations w r o ~ g h t by t11e rationaItsts. Christians began to rejoice, and theologians diagnosed: "Rationalism is on its death-bed, breathing its 1agt." Apparently a new Gospel-day was dawning. But Satan, too, was busy. In previous centuries he had propagated his lies chiefly by hiding or perverting the Scriptures. Now he planned to make short wOl:k of it aU: His scheme was to deal 1\ fatal blow to Christianity by destroying the Bible itself. The foundation blasted, the superstructure would come down of its;lf, he argued. The bottom blown out of theology, it would be a simple matter to dispose of its doctrinal cargo. It was S c h l ~ i e r m a c h e r who began the d e a d l ~ work. He abandoned the old Scripture-method and injected into reviving theology the serum of "science." He fooled the theologians into believing that there was a superior, a scientinc way of establishing the Christian doctrines, viz.. by theological rcasoning on the basis of facts, such subjective facts as religious feeling, experience, and Christian consciousness. In phraseology the "new thcology" resembled, or at any rate seemed to resemble, the old. In reality, however, it was it theology detached from thc Scriptures, devoid of the pure Gospcl, nnd employing disingenuously and deceptively old terms in an entirely new and erroneous scnse. Schleicrmacher's sucre.SBwas nothing ~ h o r t of phenomenal. A galaxy of illush-ious· theologians followed in his \vnke. "Scientific Theology" -that was the phrase conjuTed with in every university. The "new theology" was presented by its various protagonists in nll'i"uR modifications, with different degrees of deviation from the ChriRtinn truth. But they all abandoned and disavo,ved unanimously the infallibility and absolute reliability of the Scriptures. All were enthusiastic advocates of the new scientific method. They all poohjJoohed the old way of establishing a doctrine by simply quoting a denr text of Scripture, -the method employed by Christ and the apostles and restored by Luther. Theology, they said, had advanced to a higher plane, to the scientific stage. Hence it was no longer in need of an inspired, inerrant Bible and had no further use for the old, crude proof-text method. Ruch was their boast. But in reality the theology inaugurated by Schleiermacher marked the beginning of the end. It took the lid off. Before long seven demons much more radical began their work of destruction. Everywhere the walls of schools and universities hegan to reverberate with the slogans of Higher Criticism, 'Darwinism, Evolutionism, Naturalism, Pan-Babylonianism, etc. With uncanny zeal and feverish haste the modernists and radicals 12 poured an incessant stream of destructive literature into the ehurches. For decades, attack after attack. broadside after broadside, was direeted against the Bible: its authenticity, integrity. authority, revelation, inspiration. inerrancy, miracles, and supernatural doctrines. The result was appalling. The Holy Scriptures were torn into shreds. Not a book was left intact. Frequently nothing remained but the empty covers of the Bible. The dogmatic cathedral reared by Lutheran theologians of rocks quan'iC'C\ by Luther from the Scripture came dowlI. Every Christian do('tl'ine went by the board. Rdigion and morality were destroyed. 1faterialism, atheism, and l l g ' l J o " t i ( ' i . ~ m began to flourish. It was a spiritual world war that wa" fought: Christianit.v pitted against modern heathenism; Scripture against fC'HSOll; faith against science falsely so called. It was a war that lC'ft the churche8 devastated and the so-called Christian nation" in ,t condition which, in a measure, also made for the late bloody war with its cruel aftermaths. Entire ChristC'ndom was flooded with liberalism, its farthermo:;t w:n-es finally striking even the mission-fields in Japan. China, and India. TIl(' alnrming extent to which the Ueformed sectarians (wito, [J.v the way, are rationalists inherently) took to the virus is evideneed by the l:\lI1dHlIlentalists and their frantic efforts to check tht' (,OIltag-iun n" reported daily also by our secular prt'ss. Among the chid sufferers were the Lutheran churches in Germany. EYI?Il tilE>ir llIost eonsC'rvative universities have for years not harbored a sin/Zle theologian hohling a prominent chair, who dan:>d to endorsp and defend the inerrancy of the Bible. Nor did the LllthC'f>ln Church in America prove entirely imlllune against the iufpcti"ll. A,;ide from stra.y liberalistic utterances some of her theologians lllHd" hold to