Homiletics 2 File 2 Professor Carl Fickenscher II Question by: Joshua >> JOSHUA: Okay. I appreciate what you've said: Law and gospel. Now, I've got "Walther's Law and Gospel." It's a tough read in some spots. I suppose it probably wouldn't hurt to look at it again? >> PROF. FICKENSCHER: Well, you've definitely got the right source. "Walther's Law and Gospel, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel," is truly the best work ever done on this particular subject, and I agree, it's a very difficult read. In fact, for that reason, and simply because it's so precious to us, I encourage my students to read it again and again, perhaps every three to five years throughout the years of their ministry. I don't think one will ever reach the point I certainly have not where you'll read through it again and not discover something new. Certainly it's something we can get a great deal out of initially, but there's always more and more to be understood as we continue to develop in it. "Walther's Law and Gospel" really is a very special gift of God to the church, and particularly to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod because of course Walther was one of the founders of our synod. It's unfortunate, frankly, that "Walther's Law and Gospel" is not as widely known in other Lutheran circles as it is in our synod. Essentially that's a matter of history. Perhaps you know the way "Walther's Law and Gospel" came about. Walther, among many other important functions in his life, was a professor and president of our St. Louis seminary, and for many, many years, each Friday night, he would gather the students of the seminary obviously, a smaller student body than we have now around himself for an hour lecture. The Luther Hour Lectures, as they were called. The students in those days, I guess, spent their Friday nights a little differently than we did in my day at the seminary. But as they gathered together, Walther would present to them a lecture of tremendous substance, of great importance for sometimes a continuing series of many weeks. Now, one of the longest series that he ever presented was a series of lectures 39 Friday evening lectures on the proper distinction between law and gospel. Walther presented these between the fall of 1884 and the fall of 1885, with a break for Christmas and a break for the summer. This was very near the end of Walther's life, so it really expresses one of the real pinnacles of his work. Each Friday night, Walther would speak from what was apparently an outline, with a carefully prepared introduction, on one of 25 theses that he prepared on this subject. It's pretty clear that he had some flexibility as he developed the series over that year plus time, but it's also very clear that he knew where he was going to begin and where he was going to end. The 25 theses, the series, climaxes in a most appropriate way, as we can talk about, if you'd like, a little bit later on. There is also, as you read the book and I'm sure you've noticed this a pleasant kind of informality that Walther seems to express to his students. This is really very much a live and in person kind of thing. Walther did not prepare a manuscript to be published. What we have as our published work was a matter of transcription in the original German, of course, by students who were there listening to the lectures, and then a number of years later, a translation into English which we now have. People have actually discussed whether Walther would have allowed the lectures to come into publication quite this way, and I suspect as meticulous as he was, he would not have allowed the book to be quite what we have here. We'll find places, as you read through especially a second and third and fourth reading through the book where you almost want to ask Walther, "You know, CFW, you really mean that quite the way you said it?" And there are even cases where, in later lectures, he seems to clarify some of the things that he said earlier. I I don't think I would say that he contradicts himself, but certainly he expresses things in one way quite informally, quite conversationally, that he hones to a more distinct kind of wording later on, and I suspect, although we can't prove this, that in some of those cases it really was a result of students asking him, "Dr. Walther, you said earlier such and such and such and such. Couldn't that be understood to mean..." and then Walther would clarify. And I think what we have compiled in the book really does express that kind of real live and in person, on the fly, if you will, kind of discussion. And that adds a real charm to the reading because you really can picture Walther speaking comfortably, personally, to students that he knew and students that he respected very, very much. The structure of Walther's 25 theses is very interesting and important. In fact, if you'll get out your copy, Joshua I'm glad you have it if you just turn to the very first pages and look at the list of theses that he offers, you'll find the structure is quite distinct. Beginning on Page 1 of the text itself, you'll notice that Theses 1 through 4 are essentially definitional. In those first four theses, he really tells us what law and gospel are about, what distinguishing or dividing law and gospel are all about, and talks about some of the problems if they're not properly divided. Then, Theses 5 through 25, the rest of the series, are specific goofs, we might say, specific ways that law and gospel can be confused or confounded. Very specific, very practical kinds of errors that a pastor can fall into in his preaching and also in his pastoral care for his members. It is a very practical kind of book, and Walther makes that very clear in his introductory pages as well. Look, for example, at Thesis 1, and turn to it in your own book. Walther says this, as the first expression of the topic, Theses 1: "The doctrinal contents of the entire holy scriptures, both of the Old and the New Testament, are made up of two doctrines differing fundamentally from each other, the law and the gospel." Walther lays down the gauntlet from the beginning. We've got, in our entire 66 books of scripture, this very real distinction that God inspired, that God had in mind, and obviously there's a task for us, then, to examine the holy scriptures and to find that distinction that God has in mind for us. That's really definitional, to begin the entire discussion.