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LEHRE UNO VVEHRE
MAGAZIN F UER Ev.-LuTH. HOMILETIK
THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-T HEOLOGICAL MONTHLY
Vol. xvrn September, 1947 No.9
CONTENTS Page
/ Luther's Text-Critical Study of 2 Samuel 23:8. Paul Pet"rs _________ 641
/ The Blessed Results of Justification. H. J. BOllman ___________ ._. _________ . 652
Outlines of the Nitzsch Gospel Selections _______ . __ . __ . ________ . _____ . ___________ . 660
Miscellanea ... __ ....... _. __ ._ ... _._ ............. _ ...... _ ...... __ ._._._ ... _._ ... _. ____ ....... _ ...... _ ....... 672
Theological Observer . __ ..... _ .... __ ...... _._ ..... ____ .. _. __ ... ___ ... ___ .... _ .... _ ... _ ... _._._ .......... _. 697
Book Review _ .. _ ..... _._ .... ____ . __ ._ .. _._. _____ .. ___ .. ____ .. _ .. _____________ ... ___ .... _ .._ .. __ . ____ .... __ ._ 712
E1n Pred1ger muss nicht alleln tDet-
den. also dass er die Schafe unter-
weise, wie sle rechte Christen sollen
seln,sondem auch daneben den Woel-
fen weh-ren, dass sle die Schafe rucht
angrelfen und mit falscher Lehre ver-
fuehren und Irrtum einfuehren.
LutheT
Es 1st kein Ding, das die Leute
mehr bei der Klrche behaelt denn
die gute Predlgt. - Apologie, Art. 24
If the trumpet give an uncertain
sound. who shall prepare h imselt to
the batUe? - 1 COT. 14:8
Published by the
Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States
CONCORDIA PUBLlSm NG HOUSE, St. Louis 18, Mo.
PRm'l"ED m 11. s. A.
Miscellanea
Theological Liberalism Rethinks Itself
Weare sure that our readers will be glad to read what the
Calvin Forum (February, 1947) has to offer under this heading.
Briefly it is this: Modernism, though still held to by its advocates,
has proved itself a vain philosophy, and Liberalists are therefore
looking for new foundations. Manifestly they do not care for the
sure foundations of the divine Word; but is not their perplexity
our opportunity for making known everywhere the everlasting
truth of God which alone can satisfy the human heart? We read:
"A few months ago Dean Loomer of the Federated Theological
Faculty of the University of Chicago gave a significant talk to
a group of alumni of his institution. He pointed out that the men
who had been his own teachers at the Chicago Divinity School
and the teachers of many of the men he was addressing, were
retiring fast from the scene to be displaced by an entirely new
group of younger men. Of such retiring theologians he mentioned
by name: Aubrey, Baker, Bower, Case, Garrison, Goodspeed,
Graham, Haydon, McNeill, Riddle, and Spinka. He observed that
in a short time the Federated Faculty would probably be the
youngest graduate faculty in the country. All this is interesting,
but not particularly significant; However, toward the Close of this
talk the new Dean, who himself is a recent youthful successor
to Dean Colwell, made this illuminating statement:
"'But I would be less than just to you if I did not com-
municate to you the underlying conviction of the faculty that the
day of a merely tolerant and negative sort of liberalism is dead.
The liberalism which can be described as anti-fundamentalism or
anti-traditionalism or anti-something-else and which lacks a
positive content itself is no longer adequate. A liberalism which
assumes that tolerance is the fundamental virtue and which lacks
a criterion of true and false, better and worse, is deadening, thin,
and academic in the worst sense. Believing this, we question
the advisability, yes, the fundamental honesty, of giving a man
a Ph. D., regardless of his basis for determining what is evidence
in matters religious. One of the faculty's greatest concerns is to
discover a Protestant conception of authority which is constructive,
democratic, disciplined, and adequate. It is this problem which
makes us see that the intellectual struggle is a necessary aspect
of the religious quest.'
"Every sentence in this paragraph is loaded with meaning.
We may be permitted to make a few observations:
"1. Apparently the days of the glorification of 'the open mind,'
of pursuing the theological study without any 'prepossessions,'
are past at the U. of C. Divinity School. This appears to be a
repudiation of the pragmatistic spirit and methods that have
[672]
MISCELLANEA 673
prevailed for some years in every department of the University
of the Midway, the Divinity School not excepted.
"2. Is this an admission of the inherent weakness of the theo-
logical liberalism that stands for nothing positive and has en-
trenched itself for attack on the conservative position without
having a solution of its own? Is this th~ effect, however indirect,
of the new spirit that is abroad which recognizes strength in
the assertions of 'Neo-Orthodoxy,' Neo-Thomism, and possibly
even of certain forms of Fundamentalism? Is this the further
permeation of the new spirit of Chancellor Hutchins and President
Colwell ~ the former Divinity Dean ~ into the theological pre-
cincts of the institution where such theological pragmaticism as
that of Mathews, Haydon, and Baker once held sway? And does
this also mean a turning away from the theological pragmaticism
of such a man as Wieman?
"3. It is heartening to hear that it is one of the faculty's
greatest concerns 'to discover a Protestant conception of authority.'
This is a tremendous admission as coming from the Dean of the
Divinity School on the Midway. William Cleaver Wilkenson,
the author of Paul and the Revolt Against Him, a man who was
teaching in the Baptist Seminary, which through the millions of
John D. Rockefeller was incorporated into the then new University,
would be deeply interested to hear of this today if he were still
living. The 'Baptist' members of the present Federated Faculty
mayor may not remember that this Baptist, who soon was shelved
by the liberals after the merger, in his book advanced the authority
of the Word of God as expressed in Christ and His Apostles
and then, speaking of the present-day revolt against this authority,
included a chapter entitled significantly: 'Is the University of
Chicago Such a Voice of Revolt?'
"4. If Dean Loomer and the Faculty for which be claimed to be
speaking are in real earnest about discovering a Protestant con-
ception of authority, may we be permitted to suggest that such
a conception does not need to be discovered any more, though
no doubt it needs to be rediscovered at the University of Chicago.
We suggest that he make a careful study of the work of Abraham
Kuyper entitled Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology: Its Principles.
Perhaps Dean Loomer also recalls an address in his presence,
and ~ for that matter - in the presence of Professor Wieman
and many other scholars, last May under the title: 'Calvinism
and American Theology Today.' If he does, he will remember
the plea for the restoration of God-centered thinking and the
revival of Theological Science with which that address closed.
Now that the scholars of Dean Loomer's faculty are ready to
consider a 'Protestant conception of authority,' we know no better
source material for their study and research than the classic
works of the great Reformed theologians.
"5. Dean Loomer is very much to the point when he observes
that 'it is this problem which makes us see that the intellectual
43
674 MISCELLANEA
struggle is a necessary aspect of the religious quest.' This is a
recognition of the fact that liberal theology has lost contact with
the pulpit and the pew. It is an admission that personal piety
and the fear of God are - or should be - inseparable from the
theological study. It is a confession that a philosophy of religion
does not touch the real needs of the human heart and, likewise,
that a theology must be vital, touching life, must be preachable
and that no great preaching can be carried on without the
authority of God and His Word behind it. Dean Loomer will not
accept all these inferences. If he did, he would become a Reformed
theologian and would devoutly bow before the authority of the
Word of God. But we may be pardoned for pointing out that
the admissions made in the Dean's address confirm the correctness
of these great historic positions and are an indictment of the
pragmatistic, humanistic assumptions that have held sway at the
University of Chicago for the last three decades. For their rock
is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges."
Doors of Utterance
II
Open Doors in India
J. T. M.
The doors have been open to us in India for over fifty years,
and we have entered by some of those doors. Our readers will
probably be familiar with the manner in which our Synod began
work in India. After having contributed for some years to mis-
sionary efforts in India by European mission societies, and with
a widespread feeling that our Synod ought to undertake work of
her own on a foreign mission field, it so happened that several
missionaries who had left a European mission society for reasons
of conscience were found to be in full accord with our Synod in
matters of doctrine and were ready to undertake mission work in
India under a commission from our Church. These first mis-
sionaries began in an entirely new field, in Krishnagiri and neigh-
boring cities, in the North Arcot District of South India. It was
very difficult going, since they were pioneers in that field in the
fullest sense of the word. Nevertheless, by and by some doors
were open to them in that area, and at the present time we have
a rather sizable group of congregations in the so-called Ambur
Conference District. While in this instance the missionaries looked
for an entirely untouched field, our later mission effort in India
seemed to follow in the main a somewhat different pattern. Some
open doors were found because people asked us to come and teach
them, and so it frequently was not so much a matter of our search-
ing for open doors as rather of others coming to us and petitioning
us to serve them. Usually the beginnings were small, but the
Gospel being a living word, there would be fruits in the course of
time and so our Church has seen some steady progress during these
years. There probably never was a spectacular development, but
MISCELLANEA 675
we were also free from those devastating setbacks from which our
China mission suffered (flood, Communistic uprising, Japanese in-
vasion and bombing). In spite of the wilting effect of the climate,
the poverty, the superstition and ignorance of the people, the many
unpleasant and selfish traits encountered, the many measures re-
sorted to by unfriendly governments, and the difficulty of recruiting
sufficient manpower and finding sufficient financial support for the
work, our work in India has found open doors and has made
commendable progress. Appreciable progress has been made to-
wards building an indigenous Church. Some thirty-five Indian
pastors have been trained by us and are now serving con-
gregations. Some five hundred teachers and catechists and other
church workers have also been trained by us and have been put to
work. Our system of training teachers and native pastors is func-
tioning quite well. More and more the people are learning to
assume responsibility, and gradually leadership is emerging out
of the native Church.
But now we need to look for other open doors. We should
search for open doors and not merely sit back and wait for people
to find us and beg us to serve them. We need to follow the system
employed by St. Paul of getting into strategic centers and letting
the work spread out from there in concentric circles. We need
to branch out into new neighborhoods not yet touched by us. We
need to create and expand our India literature. We need to give
growing attention to the task of making the native Church mem-
bers undertake personal mission work and to have them effec-
tively reach out for others. We need, then, to think of many new
sections in India which have not yet been touched by us and
where, no doubt, a conscientious search would lead us to many an
open door of utterance.
Open Doors in the Philippines
In a miraculous manner the Lord has directed our attention to
the Philippine Islands. A lonesome young man, who hailed from
those distant shores and now very much a stranger in St. Louis,
listened to the Lutheran broadcasts and was thus brought into con-
tact with our Church. This led to his becoming a member of our
Church, attending our schools, and graduating from our seminary.
Through him our attention was directed in a particular manner
to the Philippine Islands. The Board of Foreign Missions sent their
Executive Secretary with this young man to make a tour of inves-
tigation of mission possibilities in that country, and this survey
resulted in the conclusion that Lutheran church work should be
undertaken also in that nation. The war postponed the actual
initiation of this move. But with the close of the war it was pos-
sible to get a start. Under the circumstances it was deemed best
to seek an opening through a service center operated by the Army
and Navy Commission in Manila, and Pastor Theodore D. Martens
was given a leave of absence for one year by his congregation in
Pittsburgh in order that he might serve in Manila. While his first
676 MISCELLANEA
efforts naturally were centered on the spiritual care of members of
the armed forces, it was inevitable that as active a missionary as
Pastor Martens should also come into contact with Filipino or
American civilians. Then, from the summer of 1946 on, Rev.
Alvaro Carino was in Manila and was followed a little later also
by the Rev. Herman Mayer. The Executive Secretary of the Board
then spent a month in Manila and its environments, and it was then
possible to formulate plans for the future conduct of the work.
After Pastor Martens returned to his home church in Pittsburgh,
both Pastors Carino and Mayer continued in Manila and are now
in full activity. A service centel' is maintained jointly by the
Army and Navy Commission and the Board of Foreign Missions
at 1312 General Luna, Manila, where services are conducted every
Sunday morning and other church activities have their center.
Pastor Mayer also conducts instruction classes in a private home
some two miles farther down this section of Manila, in the home
of a captain of the police force. Carino conducts services and in-
structions in a neat little chapel built in the Santa Cruz section,
north of the Pasig River, in a thickly populated, better than middle
class, Filipino sector. He also conducts instruction classes in a
private home about a mile from the site of this chapel, while he
and his family live in a Quonset hut in a newer suburb of Manila.
Think of it; within a few months regular services are held at two
places and regular instructions at two additional places, with
chances for still more work if we but had the places and the men!
Among the significant facts of the work in Manila, let us recall
that God led a group of men to our missionaries, men who had
been connected with other church groups but long felt a dis-
satisfaction with the unionistic and un-Scriptural practices of those
bodies, men who for a number of months received daily instruction
in the Word of God, and men who, under God, might serve very
well as members of the teaching force of our Church. Quite a
number of other contacts have been established with Filipino
people. The regular broadcasts of the Lutheran Hour twice each
Sunday have also contributed very substantially to the spreading
of information, the breaking down of prejudices, and the building
of appreciation for the fact that the Lutheran Church intends to
preach the Word of God in all its truth and power.
While some Christian church work has been carried on in the
Philippine Islands for many years, a careful investigation will re-
veal the presence of a great many people who either are altogether
unchurched or who have only the most superficial and merely
nominal connection with any church body. And this is a new
nation, just assuming the status of independence, with a great
awakening, a stirring up of the mind, a reaching out for truth,
a desire to find something truly satisfying and utterly dependable.
Especially our Lutheran Church can therefore be in a position to
render outstanding service to many such people if we establish
contact with them, in other words, if we search for open doors and
MISCELLANEA 677
then with courageous determination endeavor to enter by those
open doors.
Open doors in the Philippine Islands seem to be offered also
by the opportunity to carryon Christian mission work through the
agency of Christian schools. Our Board has resolved to initiate
such measures and hopes to establish schools during the course of
this year. The Filipino people are accustomed to sending their
children to private schools if they can afford it. Furthermore, the
general custom of accepting children in school only after they are
nine years old offers us a tremendous number of possible recruits
for the lower grades.
According to our mission policy, we should, then, also begin
quite soon to train native young men for the ministry. All our
effort in the Philippines ought to be directed toward building up an
indigenous Church. While at the present time quite a group of
mission workers is to be sent to the Philippine Islands, in all
probability there should be few additional men sent over from
here, but henceforth determined efforts should be made to build
up a native ministry. This native ministry, however, should con-
sist of people very carefully chosen and very thoroughly indoc-
trinated. With the help of a very carefully trained native min-
istry, no doubt, many new open doors will present themselves to us.
What About Japan?
When the Apostle Paul speaks of himself as a debtor to all men,
and when we today repeat this humble acknowledgment of our
obligation to bring the Gospel to all our fellow men, it will be felt
that this applies with particular force also to the Japanese people.
It is true that thus far we have not found an open door. There
might have been an open door ten years ago, twenty years ago,
forty years ago, but at present we can but hope for the opening of
a door. We indeed expect that quite soon it will be possible to
undertake a survey of mission opportunities in Japan, and we
fervently hope that not long after this survey has been made it
will be possible to send out mission workers to Japan. As soon
as the door is open, there will be people ready and willing to go.
And we do not doubt the willingness of Synod's constituency to
support such missionary undertakings with their prayers and con-
tributions. A very encouraging feature in the minds of those con-
cerned is the fact that usually when a new mission venture is
undertaken in a new country, so much interest is generated among
our membership that the increased contributions are sufficient to
take care of the additional mission expenditure.
There may be open doors for us also in other countries which
have not yet been touched by us. For instance, in connection with
possible work among Moslems we may be able to reach into fields
that have not yet been cultivated by our representatives, and there
may be other nations and other parts of the world in which open
doors may be found. Let us pray the Lord to grant us doors of
utterance!
678 MISCELLANEA
Why Enter the Open Door?
But what is to be our purpose when we have found an open
door and entered into some field of foreign mission activity? It
may be profitable to spend some time discussing this question.
Every once in a while you will read someone's effusive assertion
that in days gone by missionaries went out with a purpose of
preaching the Gospel, but nowadays the world has learned to look
for a different kind of mission activity. What is needed today, it
is said, is not so much a missionary whose strength would lie in
his ability to preach the Word of God but rather someone who is
trained in methods of improving the productivity of the soil or
in improving the breed of cattle and chickens or someone who
will work for an uplifting of the standards of education and who
will instill democratic ideals and teach people to observe the rules
of American or European etiquette, and, in general, to transplant
the culture to be found in Great Britain or New England to a nation
that might not take at all to that kind of culture. St. Paul very
distinctly says, when he prays for a door of utterance, that he might
speak the mystery of Christ. That's the real purpose of missionary
work, to teach the mystery of Christ, to unfold the plan of God
for the redemption of the world through the sacrificial death of His
Son, Au),ijO'm "(;0 f1,1JO',,(;YJOtoV "(;oli XOLO'''(;oli. This is indeed a mystery to
man. That it is such a mystery will strike you with tremendous
force as you look at the ceremonies and religious practices of the
heathen nations. You will be made to see that every heathen
religion is a religion of fear. They all end in the everlasting No,
no matter how finely spun and intricately contrived. They are all
barren of life and hope. They are all aimed at averting evil, of
placating an angry deity, of earning merit and acquiring favor for
oneself. You, therefore, find the devotees of these heathen religions
surrendered with a frozen apathy and dull resignation to fate with
a complete lack of initiative and a spineless subservience to the
vagaries of cruel fortune, with a shrug of the shoulder and the
resigned sigh, "that's karma," that's your fate, "maiyo fadze," there
is no other way. Or there is a set look of fanatic frenzy with which
these poor dupes of the prince of darkness devote themselves to
their religious observances and torture themselves in their effort
to atone for their sins and to build up some merit.
In the midst of this appalling darkness and utter absence of
light and hope, oh, what a wonderful task it is to come in with
the mystery of Christ, to proclaim the love and grace of God in
Christ Jesus, to set before these people the prospect of forgiveness
through the blood of the Lamb and of the hope of everlasting life,
to lift up the individual and give him dignity and worth, to make
him see that he means something to a gracious God, to give him
the assurance that a benign and omnipotent God watches over him
and guides his destinies! No wonder Saint Paul, from out of his
prison confines and with the chains clinking upon his wrists as he
MISCELLANEA 679
writes, is impelled to this impassioned plea, "Pray for us that God
may give us a door of utterance," that St. Paul wants the prison
doors open so that he may be free for more of his missionary
journeys, so that he under the drive and urge of this missionary
desire can continue to catapult himself into ever new missionary
projects, to speak the mystery of Christ, Aa)vi]cr(J.L 'to I-tV