m4tn gUI
Continuing
LEHRE UND WEHRE
MAGAZlN PUER Ev.-LuTH. HOMILETIK
T HEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY
VoL XV April, 19 No.4
CONTENTS
·co
The Right and Wrooc of Private Judgment. Th. Engeldc.r ..... _ .•.. %17
Harnack's Theological Positions. W. Arndt _ ............. %36
Circumcision and Baptism. F. R. Zucker %45
ZS9Outlioes OIl the Standard Gospel Lessons ..
Theological Observer ................ .
Book Review .................... .
EID Pred1ger mllll8 Dleht alleln U1i!i
cIea, abo duB er die Schafe unter
welle, wte l1e redlte Cbrtaten IOllen
RlD,lODdem auch dmeben den Woel
fen tIIeh,.... dus I1e die Schafe Dlcht
mcreJfal un4 mit falecher Lehre ver
fuebren UD4 Irrtum. ebduebreD.
Luther
! 73
. ..... 283
Ell 1st keln DIq. du elle Leute
mehr bet der Kirche behaelt deDn
die gute PrecIlgt. Apo&o,fe, An. H
If tl)e trumpet give an uneerta1n
sound, who abaIl prepare h!mRIf 10
the battle? -1 COf'. J4:'
PahDahed for
Ev. Lutb. 8J'IIOCI of MJ.oud, OhlD, muI Other Stat..
CONCORDIA PlJBLl8llDfG BOUSE, at. ...
_DDDr V.LA.
Book Review 283
Book Review
All books r eviewed in this periodical may be procured from or through Con-
cordia Publishing House, 3558 S. J efferson Ave., St. Louis 18, Mo.
The Day of Wrath. A Study of Prophecy's Light on Today. By Harry
E. Jessop, D. D. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, London,
and Edinburgh. 119 pages, 5X7ljz. Price, $1.25.
It is the same old story - in days of excitement and distress, people,
also Christian people, pass by the clear and definite statements of the
Holy Scriptures as contained in Isaiah, in the Psalms, in the Gospels,
in the Epistles of St. Paul, and in other books of the Old and the New
Testament, and turn to the difficult descriptions in the so-called apoca-
lyptic books, as Daniel and Revelation. They forget the important
hermeneutical principle that the less clear statements given in symbolic
language, stressing numbers, speaking about beasts, trumpets, and great
woes, should be understood and interpreted in the light of the clear
books and passages. This also holds true of the present volume. 1£ only
the well-known passage of Luther in his exposition of the 37th Psalm
about the clarity and obscurity of Holy Scripture would be kept in
mind! The author is the Dean of the Chicago Evangelistic Institute,
a Fundamentalist, but, as so many Fundamentalists and teachers at
Bible schools and Bible institutes, a literalist. "The day of wrath" is
indeed an important Biblical concept which we find stated in many of
the Prophets, in Obadiah, Joel, Amos, Isaiah, Zephaniah, and others,
and taken up by the Master and His Evangelists and Apostles in the New
Testament; but this important term is a complex concept, speaking of
important events in the history of the world and of the Church as
precursors, forerunners, harbingers of the final consummation and the
day of wrath at the end of all things. The destruction of Jerusalem
in 587 B. C. and 70 A. D., the first and second World War, and other
terrible events in history are "Days of Wrath" and are related to the
"Day of Wrath and Revelation of the righteous judgment of God,"
Rom. 2: 4, as concentric circles to the center.
The present volume contains two parts, first, "Why This Slaughter?"
second, "Antichrist Is Coming." But if we would go into details, we
would have to write a brochure. Compare for the sound Biblical posi-
tion Dr. Th. Graebner's War in the Light of Prophecy. L. FUERBRINGER
The Principles of Christian Ethics. By Albert C. Knudson, Dean Emeritus
Boston University School of Theology. Abingdon-Cokesbury
Press, New York, Nashville. 314 pages, 6X9. $2.75.
This treatise gives valuable information on the history of Christian
ethics and on the divergent teachings regarding various phases of the
Christian moral life. And its masterly treatment of the rationale of
the principles of Christian ethics together with their application to
concrete situations (individual ethics and social ethics, the family, mar-
riage, divorce, the State, war, Church and State, economics, etc.) deserves
careful study. In so far the book is useful. But what it offers on the
284 Book Review
great question of how the Christian life is produced and promoted is
altogether harmful. What it teaches in the section dealing with the
presuppositions of the Christian ethic is destructive of the Christian
moral life. No true Christian life can be built upon the basis which
is here proposed. While many of the conclusions reached by Dr. Knudson
in his discussion of the Christian duties are in agreement with the teach-
ing of Scripture, he takes away the dynamics needed for the Christian
performance of these duties. In the first place, in listing the pre-
suppositions of Christian ethic he warns against the harmful influence
of the monergistic teaching and calls for the application of the semi-
Pelagian-Arminian-Synergistic doctrine. He sets down the correct
principle: "Man is a sinner and hence, if he is to be saved, if he is to
attain to moral purity and to holiness of life, must receive divine for-
giveness and experience the transforming power of the divine grace."
(P. 64.) But this does not mean sola gratia. We read on page 93:
"Against the Pelagian theory of sin there has been an unfavorable
reaction on the part of the Church as a whole. The theory does, how-
ever, emphasize an important truth, that of man's freedom and respon-
sibility. And in the semi-Pelagian or Arminian theory of sin the effort
was made to conserve this truth without sacrificing or curtailing the
more fundamental religious truth of the divine grace. According to this
theory, man's nature was corrupted by the Fall, and as a result his will
was weakened, and he was left with a native bias toward evil. . . .
According to the theory of monergism, man is not morally well, as the
Pelagians affirmed, nor is he morally sick, as the semi-Pelagians taught;
he is morally dead. He !;las no independent spiritual vitality. He can of
himself do no 'good' thing. He is absolutely dependent upon divine
grace for his salvation. He cannot in his own strength co-operate with
God in the work of redemption. God does everything. Monergism, not
synergism, is the true Christian theory. The strict Augustinian doctrine
was revived by Protestant reformers and made basal in their theology.
. . ." Our Author takes the semi-Pelagian-Arminian-synergistic side.
He declares: ''The various ideas of a primitive Fall, of hereditary or
racial guilt, and of the total depravity may be dismissed as unwarranted
speculation." (P.lOl.) "This pessimistic tendency to exaggerate the
sinfulness and helplessness of man" (p.l04), this "subethical doctrine
of original sin." (P.264.) "Lutherans, Calvinists, and other Augus-
tinians, who have held to an extreme doctrine of original sin and denied
to 'fallen' man real freedom" are advised to renounce their monergism
"and accept the synergistic conception of freedom." (pp. 150, 20.) Moner-
gism is irrational, and, worse, it is fatal to true morality. Our book's
author is most explicit on this point. He knows exactly what we teach.
Monergism "makes man completely dependent upon the divine grace
for his redemption .... We ourselves, according to this theory, have no
real freedom. We are slaves of sin. We can do no good thing. Our
every act and thought in so far as it emanates from ourselves is sinful.
We cannot avoid such action, and yet we are responsible for it. From
this bondage of sin we can escape only through the aid of the Divine
Spirit. Real freedom is the ability to do the right, and this is God's
Book Review 285
gift to us. We have nothing to do with it ourselves. Weare able to
do wrong but not to do the right. . . . By grace we may be made free."
What about this teaching? "An endless amount of equivocation and
theological legerdemain has been resorted to in the effort to justify this
position, but none of the attempts has ever succeeded or ever will succeed
in rescuing this theory from its inherent irrationality. . . . It is fatal
to true morality." (P. 81.) The only teaching which satisfies the demands
of reason and produces true morality is the Arminian-synergistic teach-
ing, which holds that "conversion is a work in which the human and
the divine co-operate." (P. 105.) We, on our part, declare that the con-
version and the morality which is produced in whole or in part by the
natural powers of fallen man is a sham. In as far as the theologian and
pastor and teacher operates with semi-Pelagianism in any of its various
modifications, he makes conversion and the Christian life impossible. -
Note, by the way, that the controversy on monergism vs. synergism is
not a dead issue, neither in theology nor in practical life. And we
thank our author for drawing the issue so clearly. Note, too, that the
old sophistry is still being employed. "At bottom the difference [between
semi-Pelagianism and monergism] seems to me one of words more than
of substance. For both sides lay primary stress on the divine grace."
(Pp. 186, 94.) Why, even the Pelagians of old, who ascribed everything
to man, used to speak of "the grace" of God. Similarly, in the state-
ments that "if a sinner is to be saved, he must receive divine forgivenesss"
(p. 64) and that "only through the divine grace can sin be forgiven"
(p. 102) the term "gracious forgiveness" is not used in the Biblical
sense. Compare statements like these: "Repentance is a change of mind,
a godly sorrow for sin, an inner moral transformation. As such it is
a sufficient ground for the divine forgiveness." (P. 49.) "The only moral
basis for forgiveness is repentance." (P. 247.)
In the second place, our book speaks of "the unique significance of
the New Testament as the chief source and norm of the Christian ethic."
(P. 37.) "We base the view that love is the fundamental principle of
the moral ideal on the teaching of the New Testament." (P. 118.) We,
too, teach that the New Testament (and all of Scripture) is the chief
(the only) norm and, more than that, the only source of the Christian
life. The only norm of good works is God's Law, as presented in
Scripture, and the power to lead a holy life is supplied only by the
Gospel, preached by the Apostles and Prophets. But Dr. Knudson does
not consider Scripture to be the inspired, the inviolable, the faithful
Word of God. To him Scripture is a human product. For instance:
"In the New Testament this doctrine appeared in the teaching of Paul
with two or three important modifications. Jesus did not apparently
commit himself either to the Fall theory or to the rabbinic conception
of the yezer ham (the 'evil imagination' of Gen. 8: 21) . Indeed, he seems
not to have raised the question as to the ultimate origin of human sin.
Sin was to him an obvious fact ; it was somehow rooted in the human
'heart' ; but just how he did not say. Theorizing on the subject he left
to others. And this we find in its most influential form in th e Epistles
of Paul, who had probably been predisposed to such speculation by his
286 Book Review
rabbinical training. He may have learned the yezer theory from
Gamaliel; but, if so, he freely modified it after becoming a Christian.
He gave a more definite psychological content to the moral consequences
of the Fall by identifying them with the yezer ham, which he thus
transformed into a hereditary evil impulse." (P. 91.) According to this
the Holy Scriptures are nothing but the pious thoughts of good, learned
men. According to that the theorizing of Paul may be criticized, im-
proved, or rejected by other learned Christians. Our author does that.
He admits that "monergism has some basis in the teaching of Paul"
(p. 94), and he feels at liberty to reject it as a false theory! The writings
of fallible men, however, cannot serve as the source and norm of Chris-
tian ethics. The Word of God is the dynamic producing conversion,
justifying men, and producing good works.
In the third place, the deity of Jesus Christ and His vicarious atone-
ment are not touched upon in this treatise on Christian ethics. What
the readers learn about Jesus is that "he did not apparently commit
himself to the Fall theory, etc.," that "he not only taught us what the
moral idea is; he exemplified it in his own life; he bade us to follow
him; ... he is our perfect example" (pp.157,160), and "that he shared
the