Vol. XXSIII Spring, 1969 KO. 1
TIIE SPEIXGFIELDEE is p~~blished quarterly by the faculty of Con-
cordia Theological Seminary, Springfield, Illinois, of the Lutheran
Church - Ilissouri Synod.
EDTT'ORl-41_ COZIZITTTEE
EEICH H. HEIATLES, Editor
R,iu~~o.. ;n F. SL RGGRG, Boo!: He??iezr Editor
D.2~~11) P. ~ C A E P . , '4ssocinte Editor
~ ~ A K K I. SIFEGE, A,snciatt. Editor
~ ' I : L S I I ) E ~ T J. I . 0. PKEL S, E X officio
Contents
RESPOSSES TO "\VH:Ill COLTXI1 I'AIFST TO THE 'SOL,I
GI'lATI-I' 1U THE 1.L 7 HER-\s C CISFESSIOSS
1s I*OLJ'ES''
Hrc I I A ~ : ~ J. Sc H U T TZ
ERICH 13. HL.,ISTZO
RESI'OhSES TO "THI LCTHLI'l.1S CONFES5lOn'S AND
'SOI-A SC RIYTL;RL4' "
EV(:ESE 't. KLLG
FKED ~ K , W E R
lndcx~rf i?, 1 3 ~ ~ s TO RELIGIOUS PERIODICAL LITERATURE, published by the
Amcric(i?i Tt~eoJog~cul Lihroq Association, J I ~ C o r n ~ i c k Senzina~? Lihrnn,
Chicr~go. : ' l lnor~.
Clergy chdngcs of .~ddress reported to Concorda Publishing House, St. Louis,
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of address should he sent to the Business Manager of The Springfielder, Con-
cordia Theological Seminary, Springfield, Illinois 62702.
i lddr~ss conlrnunications to the Editor, Erich H. Heintzen, Concordia T h e e
logical Seminary, Springfield, Illinois 62 7 02.
A Reaction to The Essay: "The
Lutheran Confessions and
'Sola Scriptura' "
I . O!?servatio~zs on the essay itself
HE ESSAY very properly recogni~es the fact that the Lutheran T Confessions are Trinitarian, i.e., they point the church which
is pledged to these confcssions to the Triune God as her God. The
Trinitarian faith, moreover, confesses "Sola gratia" as the chief
article of faith, and views all theology, also the Scripture itself, from
the vantage point of this article. The Lutheran Church insists on
"sola Scriptura", because she has first come to confess "sola gratia".
The Scripture is source and authority for the teaching of "sola gratia."
1 L
"What happens," the essay asks, when we view the Scriptures
from the perspective of "sola gratia?" It answers that then, accord-
ing to the Lutheran Confessions, we are led to make the following
affirmations :
I . The Scriptures are God's address to man, revealing His
grace in Jcsus Christ, His Son.
2. The Scriptures are the authoritative source of the church's
proclaination and the norm by which that proclamation is
tested.
3. The Scriptures are the means by which the church lives
and fulfils her mission. The church is the redemptive com-
munity in which the Holy Spirit is at work through the
Word to bring men to faith, to build up the body of Christ,
and to carry the \Vord to the ends of the earth.
4. The same principle which governs the Scriptures them-
selves governs all interpretations of Scripture.
Under point I , the essay makes the significant statement that
"in the Bible man is confronted by none other than God Himself in
His judging and pardoning activity." This serves to draw attention
away from the tendency, always present in the church, to make the
Bible a collection of many doctrines (a welter in which the poor
Christian reader may easily get lost) and to direct the Christian's
gaze on God Himself, who in the Bible speaks to him, addresses him,
in both Law and Gospel.
The essay then proceeds, still under point one, to show the task
of the Law, which "reveals, denounces, and condemns sin." At
length, and very explicitly, in the very words of the Confessions, it
then sets forth the content of the Gospel from the individual Luth-
eran Confessions, showing that the Gospel deals with the work and
of the Son of God for sinful man's redemption; that this
Gospel calls sinful man to faith in Christ; that througli this faith
col~lcs illto a new relationship with God, which in turn leads to
a ]ife of sanctification.
LYnder point 3, the essay strongly states the Reformation em-
phasis on Scripture which, hccause it is God's IVord and address
to man, is also the sole authority in the church, both as the source
of the message and as the norm of the content of the
c.hurc]l's message." Here it is particularly the Preface to the whole
Book concord, and the Formula of Concord in its statement on
Rr41e h'or~n, to which thc essay appeals. The essay, however,
ri;4htlg l~oints out that all Lutheran Confessions a ~ e a l to the Scrip-
ture the sole authority in matters of the doctrine and life of the
church.
Point 2 deals with one of the strongest emphases of the Refor-
mation, the emphasis on the authority of the Scripture. It was
l~ot, at that time, a question of the inspiration of the Scripture. That
\\.as acccl>tcd also by thc Roman Catholics. But Roinan Catholics at
the tiwe of the Reformation were insisting, as they later declared
offc.iallv at the Council of Trent, that not only the Holy Scripture,
hut als; the "unwritten traditions which, received by the Apostles
thelnselvcs, the Holy Ghost dictating, have come down even unto us,
transmitted as it were from hand to hand" were to be received ''with
equal affection of piety and revcrcnce," as the sacred Scripture.'
It is against this teaching of the Roman Catholic Church at the time
of the Rcformation, and against her insistence on making articles of
faith on the basis of supposedly apostolic traditions, that the emphasis
of the Lutheran Confessions on the authority of Scripture is directed.
Standing on the authority of the Scripture the Confessions
seek to vindicate to the Scripture two prerogatives: 1 . The Scripture
is to be the source of the church's message; her teachings are to be
drawn from this source and from no other. 2. All teachings which
dcmand to be hcard in the church, or which are heard in the church,
must hc judgcd by Scripture. This is the meaning of the statement
that the Scripture is the norm of the content of the church's message.
lTncler point 3 , the essay states that "the church committed to
thc Lutheran Symbols believes, teaches, and confesses that the Scrip-
tures as the \Vord of God provide the church with the adequate,
reliable, and efficacious means for her work among her members and
for her lnission to the world."
r . 1 his also is primarily a Rcformation emphasis. At the time
of the Rcformation men argued about the "perfectio Scripturae."
By this they did not mean, as our age might read it, an affirmation
or cleniiil of the inerrancy of Scripture. They were speaking,
rather, of the adequacy or sufficiency of Scripture. The term "per-
fection" 'tr.;ls understood as completeness, sufficiency. The Roman
Catholic Church did not argue that Scripture was bad, or erroneous.
It believed and taught the inspiration of the Scripture, and un-
ashanledly used the terminology, "Spiritu Sancto dictante." But
Of Scripture
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25
--
Honlan Catholic theologians argued at great length that the Scrip-
ture was not perfect in the sense of "not complete, not sufficient."
The church, therefore, was bound to the unwritten traditions,
through which the inconlpleteness of the Scripture was comple-
mented. Thus, Christians could have in Scripture plus tradition
an adequate rule for faith and life.
It is against this position of the Roman Catholic Church, that
the Lutheran Confessions insist that the Scriptures, as the IVord of
God, provide the church with the adequate, reliable, and efficacious
means for her work among her members and for her mission in the
world.
The essay emphasizes that the Lutheran Confessions affirm the
adequacy, and therefore also thc reliability, of the Scripture as the
Word of God; that the confessions look upon the Scripture, not as
a dead report of God's speaking once upon a time, but rather as
something dynamic, through which God still speaks and will con-
tinue to speak, working faith in men through His Spirit who is active
in and through thc Word, and leading men to a life of sanctification.
Under p i n t 4, the essay speaks briefly on the proper way to
understand and interpret the Scripture. It tells us that:
The church committed to the Lutheran Symbols believes,
teaches, and confesses that the Scriptures as the Word of God
must be interpreted in conformity with the purpose of God
expressed in the Scriptures, that is, in careful distinction of
Law and Gospel, and with a vicw to enabling men to proclaim
the Word of God to save the sinner, edify the believer, and pro-
voke and empower him to love God and his neighbor.
In this connection the essay makes the strong statement, worthy
of careful attention and constant observance by every reader and
interpreter of Scripture :
Just as all doctrines, including the doctrine concerning the
Scriptures, are given their dimension and direction from the
Gospel, so also the interpretation of the Scriptures is to be un-
dertaken from this perspective. Any interpretation of Scrip-
ture that does not take this into account rests on false prin-
ciples, is misleading, heretical, disruptive, irreverent, and ir-
relevant.
These are fighting words. Yet they express the understanding
of Luther and of the Reformers. This is how they want the Scrip-
ture read and interpreted, with the purpose of the Scripture, "to
make men wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus," always
before the eyes of the reader.
11. Observations for the church in the year 1969
This writer found that the essay, The Lutheran Confessions
and "Soh Scriptura" accurately and adequately reflects the position
of the Lutheran Confessions on the authoritv of Scripture. The
question of the authority of the Scripture is still a question of life
and death for the church, for the Scripture is her only authority.
This authority is constantly being called into question. It was so
during the Reformation. It was so during the age of Orthodoxy,
(roughly from 1 680- 1 7 20) when Roman Catholic theologians con-
tinued, in line with the decree of the Council of Trent, to seek to
lessen the authority of Scripture by insisting that the oral traditions
must share the authority in the church with Scripture. During the
same period the anti-Trinitarian Socinians sought to undermine the
authority of the Scripture by questioning the nature of inspiration,
and accusing the Scripture of errors. It is so today also, when the
assertions of the Socinians have been accepted by many people in the
churches as a result of literary and historical criticism of the Bible,
and an extreme type of for111 criticism undermines the text of the
Scripture until one \I-ondcrs hon- such a book can even faintly be
thought to possess an) authorit) at 311.
The church has not been silent in the face of thcsc attacks on
the authority of the Scripture. Students of thc histor! of tloctrine
and of theology insist that the dogmaticians of the scvc~lteenth ccn-
tury, both Lutheran and I