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.
Theological Observer 273
~logical Observer
Propositions Concerning Some Essentials for Lutheran Unity Sub-
:mEtcd for Discussion at Intcl"synodical Conferences. - It is the aim in
the following paragraphs to mention the issues which we believe confront
our dear Lutheran Church here in America at present and to indicate
briefly where in our opinion all who wish to be conservative Lutherans
should stand. The paragraphs are not intended to enumerate all subjects
in controversy, but merely to draw attention to some great essentials.
1. The inspiration of the Holy Scriptures is apparently the most im-
portant issue today. While all Lutherans, as far as we know, are willing
to say that the Scriptures are inspired, a number deny that this inspira-
tion is plenary and implies full inerrancy of the Scriptures. We hold
that every word of the Scriptures as they were originally written by the
Prophets and Apostles is definitely inspired (Verbal Inspiration; how-
ever, not mechanical) and that, coming from God, they are free from all
error. This we believe on account of the testimony of the Scriptures
themselves: John 10: 35; 2 Tim. 3: 16; 1 Cor. 2: 13.
2. Another issue is the subscription to the symbolical writings of the
Lutheran Church. We are not aware that a bona fide subscription to the
confessional writings, a subscription to them because (quia) they set
forth correctly the teachings of the Word of God, and not merely in as
far as (quatenus) they do so, is officially opposed anywhere in the Lu-
theran Church of our country today. We mention this issue because of
its vital importance.
3. A durd issue pertains to unity in doctrine. In some circles the
opinion prevails that unity in doctrine need not to be striven for, that
latitude should be permitted, that merely in fundamental matters unity
in doctrine must be worked for. Against such a view we urge the
sacredness of every teaching contained in the Scriptures and the duty
of God's children to cling to everything He has taught them, Matt. 28: 20;
John 8: 31, 32. The conservative Lutheran Church dare not write indif-
ference in doctrine on its flag.
4. Another issue has to do with the question whether absolute uni-
formity in all doctrines, fundamental and non-fundamental, must be
a condition of church fellowship. While full unanimity in all matters
of doctrine, be they important or apparently unimportant, must be sought,
and while not a single statement of the Bible can be to us a matter of
indifference, we should not say that there can be no fellowship unless
uniformity also in all non-fundamental doctrines has been attained.
Non-fundamental doctrines (that is, doctrines such as those of the Anti-
christ and the conversion of all Israel) may not be reduced to the level
of open questions. If a position on non-fundamental doctrines militates
against a clear text of the Scriptures, it cannot be sanctioned, whereas
weakness and temporary inability to understand and agree on non-
fundamental doctrines may be borne if no divisions and offenses are
created and if the authority of the divine Word is fully accepted and
recognized.
18
274 Theological Observer
50 The fifth issue pertains to unionismo False teaching is a poison,
and church fellowship with those who divide the Church through false
doctrine must be avoided, Gal. 5: 9; Rom. 16: 17, 180
6. The sixth issue is the lodge problem. It is quite generally recognized
in the Lutheran Church of America that the anti-Christian lodge must
be opposed by us, that membership in it must be shown to be sinful,
and that our church practice must include disciplinary measures against
those who refuse to listen to God's Word on this point. The method of
combating the lodge must, of course, be evangelical and have the aim
to win the sinner.
NOTE. - These propositions are submitted by the Missouri Synod
Committee for Doctrinal Unity. We cherish the hope that similar com-
mittees in other Lutheran bodies will likewise favor a wide discussion
of these matters. Conference secretaries belonging to the Missouri
Synod are requested to be so kind as to send us reports on the meetings
here visualized.
THE MISSOURI SYNOD COMMITTEE FOR DOCTRINAL UNITY
The American Lutheran Conference Overture for Lutheran Unity.
In our issue for March, 1944, we reprinted an overture for Lutheran
unity which was published in the Lutheran Outlook of January, 1944-
an overture that emanated from the executive committee of the Amer-
ican Lutheran Conference and was adopted by the committe in its meet-
ing held in Chicago, January 7, 1944.
No one can deny the importance of this document. It faces the
problem of Lutheran union or unity and submits definite views con-
cerning it. The first paragraph sounds a healthy note, "Our Lutheran
Church is rightly jealous of the integrity of its doctrine and practice,
rightly wary of indifferentism or latitudinarianism, no matter what emer-
gencies may arise." The second paragraph is equally commendable.
"Therefore our Lutheran Church has set up great historic standards for
its doctrine and practice, and has always insisted upon genuine and
wholehearted acceptance of these standards by all who would share its
name and followship."
The third paragraph explains why in the course of time additional
statements touching doctrines became necessary and were drawn up,
"Since some important points of doctrine and practice which were not
issues in the sixteenth century and therefore were not included in the
confessional writings of that period have more recently become issues
affecting inner unity, our Lutheran church bodies have rightly required
and provided supplementary statements, or theses, on occasion in order
to testify to their unity and to reassure one another thereby."
It is in the fourth paragraph, when the scene of present-day theo-
logical discussion is entered, that we encounter statements which we
cannot endorse. The Minneapolis Theses, the Brief Statement, and the
Pittsburgh Agreement are mentioned, and the claim is made that these
documents "have made sufficiently clear the position of the three major
groups within American Lutheranism." This statement, it seems to us,
does not agree with the facts. Certainly the position of the U. L. Co A.
has not been made sufficiently clear by its adoption of the Pittsburgh
'rheological Observer 275
Agreement. We disregard for the present the inadequate character of
the document and its rejection by an important, influential minority
group of the U L. C. A. It is evident that the Pittburgh Agreement does
not tell us where the U. L. C. A. stands on the controversies that have
agitated the Lutheran Church of America during the past hundred years
or so. The document, of course, .vas not intended to offer pronounce-
ments on these controversies; its scope is very limited. Whoever de-
sires to know what the U. L. C. A. teaches, for instance, on the various
questions pertaining to the "Last Things," questions which have been
debated widely in the Lutheran Church of our country, will not in this
document be given the information he seeks. Hence we are amazed
to find the statement submitted here that the position of the three major
groups within American Lutheranism has been made sufficiently clear
by the three documents listed. The Missouri Synod has told the world
where it stands through issuing its Brief Statement. Is it expecting
too much of the U. L. C. A. that it should say whether or not in its view
this Brief Statement represents the teaching of the Scriptures and the
Lutheran Confessions?
The position of the American Lutheran Conference is much dif-
ferent from that of the U. L. C. A. The Conference has adopted the
Minneapolis Theses, in which a number of the teachings that were de-
bated are dwelt on, though only very briefly. It was the brevity of the
document which made us criticize it in 1927. (See THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY,
VII, p.116 f.) The American Lutheran Conference, too, should tell us
whether in its view the doell-inal positions which we advocate in th;:
Brief Statement are right or wrong. Of the American Lutheran Con-
ference bodies the American Lutheran Church has in a general way
endorsed. the Brief Statement, while the Norwegian Lutheran Free
Church in its official organ Folkebladet (see issue of December 2, 1942)
stated its opposition to four doctrines held by the Missouri Synod, those
referring to unionism, inspiration, predestination, and separation of
Church and State. But the American Lutheran Conference as such has
not given a declaration on its attitude toward the Brief Statement. In
a word, each one of the three documents in question has told us some-
thing about the doctrinal position of the body that adopted it, but the
Pittsburgh Agreement is far from telling the world what precisely the
U. L. C. A. teaches on the controverted points, and even the Minneapolis
Theses, though possessing great merits, are inadequate when viewed in
this light.
In saying this we do not wish to be understood as holding that the
publication of the overture is without value. We believe it is a good
thing that the eXecutive committee of the American Lutheran Con-
ference has issued this document. First and foremost, the Norwegian
Lutheran Free Church, member of the American Lutheran Conference,
will be reminded by this manifesto, in which its representatives join,
that it is in the wrong camp or must drop its opposition to the Mis-
souri Synod teaching on verbal inspiration, because the First Article of
the Minneapolis Theses (embodied in this overture) dealing with the
Scriptures, though not employing the term "verbal inspiration," teaches
exactly what the members of the Missouri Synod hold relative to the
276 Theological Observer
inspiration of our Sacred Volume. Furthermore, this publication is
bound to stimulate interest in doctrinal discussions, which is always to
be welcomed. Lutheran theologians should regard the appearence of
this overture as a clarion call urging them to sit down together and to
discuss the important doctrinal issues that are before the Church. If
that is accomplished, the publication of this doc ~ment may well be re-
garded as a momentous event. A.
Chaplains in the Army and Navy. - A recent statement which ap-
peared in the Lutheran Companion says that the Missouri Synod has
180 chaplains in the Army and 8 in the Navy. The United Lutheran
Church has 181 chaplains in the Army and 70 in the Navy. The total
number of Lutheran chaplains is 529 for the Army, 143 for the Navy.
The statement declares, "It has been estimated that the total number of
Lutheran men in the American armed forces is approximately 450,000.
This means that there is one Lutheran pastor in service for every 669
Lutheran men. The Government's aim is to have at least one chaplain
for every thousand men. It would appear, therefore, that so far as its
Dwn membership is concerned, the Lutheran Church is furnishing an
ample quota of chaplains. However, when it is remembered that at least
half of the men in the armed forces have no church connections and
that the chaplain must minister to all of the men in his command, our
Church is not providing more chaplains than are actually needed." The
latter point is important and should not be lost sight of. A.
Regarding the Communion Cup. - The Living Church (February 20,
1944), an organ of the Protestant Episcopal Church, contains a letter
which might prove of interest to some of our readers. It says: "The
fonowing is a summary of an article entitled 'Survival of Bacteria on
the Silver Communion Cup,' - William Burrows and Elizabeth S. Hem-
mens - Department of Bacteriology and Parasitology and the Walter
G. Zoller Memorial Dental Clinic, University of Chicago, Vol. 73, No.3,
pp.180-190, taken from the Journal of Infectious Diseases, dated Novem-
ber-December, 1943: 'Evidence is presented which indicates that bac-
teria swabbed on the polished surface of the silver chalice die off rapidly.
Experiments on the transmission of test organisms from one person to
another by common use of the chalice showed that approximately 0.001
per cent of the organisms are transferred even under the most favorable
conditions; when conditions approximated those of actual use, no
transmission could be detected. Only small numbers of bacteria from
the normal mouth could be recovered from the chalice immediately
after its use by four persons. It is concluded that in practice the silver
communion cup is not an important vector of infectious disease.' Albert
E. Russell, M. D., Governors Island, N. Y." - We pass on this information
for what it is worth. To us it only confirms the findings of experiments
previously made. J. T. M.
Concerning Evening Services. - An editorial in the Presbyterian of
November 18, 1943, is worthy of being reprinted.
"Revive, Revivify, the Evening Service. A capable consecrated pastor
sends us word to this effect: For ten years past the evening service has
dwindled. Last year it was omitted. This fall it was re-established,
Theological Observer 277
but ran along with twenty to thirty attending. Then the pastor quietly
resolved that by the grace of God and hard work he would make it
count. He insisted on it. He encouraged it. He tried to make it attrac-
tive in the best sense of that word. Numbers promptly increased. The
report shows: 70, 96, 101, 113, 131, 141, 146 on successive Sabbaths. It
recalls an experience we had reading over the ushers' book at the
Arch Street Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, during the pastorate of
Dr. Macartney. We remember noting how the evening audiences steadily
grew over a period of ten years at the rate of an average of one hundred
each year. The last figure in the series was for a June Sabbath night
of a certain year, and it was just over 1,000. Ten years before that date
the number present was under 100. Every evening service established
helps to start another." A.
A Priceless Boon for the Blind. - The entire King James Version
of the Bible has now been put into talking-book form (phonographic
recordings) for the blind and especially the crippled blind who cannot
read Braille and other systems with their finger tips.
The entire Bible in talking book consists of 169 double-faced records.
It takes almost 85 hours to run it off from Genesis to the end of Reve-
lation.
About eight readers took part in producing this "talking-book Bible,"
two of them clergymen and others well-known radio and theater readers
and speakers.
These recordings, like the Bible in Braille, is sold to the blind at
a very much less-than-cost price, namely, at twenty-five cents per
record. The price of the Bible in Braille is twenty-five cents per volume
(English), and there are twenty volumes to the entire Bible, five of
which are the New Testament alone.
You people who can see can buy a fairly good Bible in a dime store
for twenty-five cents, an entire Bible. But it costs the American Bible
Society almost a hundred dollars to produce the entire Bible in Braille.
The twenty-five cent per-volume price does not even cover the cost of
the paper on which the Holy Words are written in Braille. So you see
what a precious thing it is to have one's sight!
Excerpted and submitted by Frederick Graepp
The Reformation and Liberalism. - The Catvin Forum (February,
1944) is enraged at the loose and unjust way in which liberal radicals
speak of deistic and atheistic revolutionists as Reformers. It says:
"Take, for example, Fred G. Bratton's recent book The Legacy of the
Liberat Spirit. It is a discussion of so-called 'liberal' thought throughout
the centuries. The program of liberal thinking is linked to outstanding
thinkers in various periods, Here is the line-up: Origen, Erasmus, Vol-
taire, Tom Paine, Theodore Parker, Charles Darwin, John Dewey.
Rationalism, Deism, Unitarianism, and Naturalism are all forms of the
progressive world spirit. At the hands of Professor Bratton, Darwin be-
comes a 'saint.' An interesting implication of this whole standpoint
comes to an unexpected expression in the characterization which the
author gives of Voltaire. In a striking phrase he says that Voltaire is
'the Reformation of France.' This is a fine illustration of the liberal
278 Theological Observer
view of the Reformation. The Reformation is simply a revolt - the
content does not matter. It is a revolt. Whether in the interest of a purer
Gospel as over against the perversions of Roman Mediaevalism or in
the interest of a bald individualism and rationalism, does not matter.
Whoever believes in revolt against authority is hence a son of the
Reformation and has caught its true spirit. '.rhe belief that the in~
dividual is the highest court of appeal and that he is subject to no
authority outside himself in his thinking and life is held to be the essence
of the spirit of the Reformation. It is futile to point out to such 'liberal'
thinkers that this interpretation of the spirit of the Reformation would
be repudiated by all who themselves ~ere champions of that movement
and helped to create it and bring it to development. Even latitudinarian
and irenic Erasmus would not agree to this interpretation. The Refor-
mation, however, championed the rights of the individual a3 over against
the group in submission to the Word of God. Every Reformer knew
himself to be minister verbi divini. The authority of the Word of God
was to him absolute. The 'revolt' of the Reformation was a revolt in
submission to the authority of the Word of God [italics in the original].
However greatly the various interpretations of Scripture might differ,
not the individual's opinion, but the truth of the revealed Word of God
was the standard and norm. No radicalism or rationalism or naturalism
can claim to stand in the line of the spiritual tradition of the Protestant
Reformation." - Even the frequently presented view of the Reformation
as its being an appeal from the judgment of the Church to the right of
private judgment, is historically incorrect. Luther, for example, in his
Reformation did not appeal from the doctrine or judgment of the Church
to his own private doctrine or judgment. His appeal was from the
erroneous, antichristian doctrine of the Papacy to the true and Christian
doctrine of Holy Scripture. Nor did he presume to interpret Scripture
by his own reason or intelligence; but, in expounding Scripture, he
applied the age-old maxim: Scripturu Scriptgram interpretatur.
J.T.M.
What Our Seminaries Desperatedly Need.-The Calvin Forum (Feb-
ruary, 1944), under this heading, publishes a most timely editorial, tak-
ing exception to an article in a "Reformed Church Weekly" which sug-
gested the establishment of a "Chair of Rural Work" at the Christian
seminaries of our country. Among other things, the article declared:
"We believe that our young men desperately need special training for
the rural ministry." What, however, this "special training for the rural
ministry" amounts to is, according to the Calvin Forum editorial, that
the country pastor dons overalls, works at threshing with his parish-
ioners, gives farmers a course in refinancing their mortgages, makes a
practical study of enriching the soil, acquaints the farmers with the
available scientific means of improving the yield of certain crops, and
makes them proud to improve the outward appearance of their farm-
houses and barns. He also organizes clubs for this purpose among the
youth and in an all-round way helps them become better farmers in the
most literal sense of the word. The Calvin Forum asks: "We would
like to ask in all seriousness what all this has to do with the task of
Theological Observer 279
the minister of the Gospel?" and then, admitting that the Word of God
indeed has the promise of the life that now is, says with very much
authority and emphasis: "We submit that what our young men desper-
ately need for both the city charge and the rural parish is a deeper
grounding in the Word of God; a grasp of the great verities of the abid-
ing and eternal Faith and the ability to impart these to their audience
on the Lord's Day, a real, deep pastoral sense that sympathizes with
the needs and occupations, the disappointments and the hopes, the cares
and the anxieties of the sheep of their flock. What our pastors, both in
the city and in the rural district, need desperately is to understand the
needs of the soul, to impart a spiritual blessing to these souls in home
visitation and personal contact, to lift up the Christ and the consolations
of the Word of God for the hungry and suffering. We do not need
ministers that are businessmen. We do not need ministers that are shop-
workers. Neither do we need ministers that are farmers. But we sorely
and desperately need ministers, pastors, shepherds of souls, healers of
wounded hearts, spiritual guides to young and old, counselors of per-
plexed Christians. We need practical men, to be sure. The minister
who lives aristocratically 'above' the level of his hungry sheep, who
look up and are not fed-we do not desire him, and he is a good rid-
dance. A minister must enter into the life of his people. He must
sympathetically understand them in their daily toil. But that he must
do in order to give them what they do not have and he can impart. They
will in the long run respect him most if he breaks the bread of life to
them - not when he becomes an expert in improving the soil and re-
financing their mortgages." We are sure that every truly Christian
minister will subscribe to this. Modernists with their attempts at a social
gospel, doing the very thmgs said above of the pastoral farmer ad-
viser, have failed egregiously, while ministers who did conscientiously
what they were called to do, pastoring the flocks entrusted to them and
feeding them with the word of God, were both ardently loved and
sincerely respected. This, of course, does not mean that there should be
no social or economic contacts between the rural pastor and his country
folk parishioners; but it does mean that the minister should do his
special work, just as the farmer does his. The minister who conscien-
tiously dedicates himself to the spiritual Gospel will not have any time
left for the so-called social gospel. J. T. M.
Enthusiasm and Nonsense. - Sometime ago there appeared a com-
pilation of essays by various authors on Jesus, edited by Thomas S. Kep-
ler and bearing the title "Contemporary Thinking About Jesus." A re-
view of this book recently appeared in The Living Church (February 13,
1944), written by Rev. Joseph Fletcher. Editorially the Living Church
remarks on this review, among other things: "It seems to us that the
basic question at issue is not, 'What is Jesus like?' but: 'What are our
sources of infurmation about Jesus?' To the orthodox Protestant, the
answer is: 'All we know about Jesus is what we read in the Bible.'
To the liberal Protestant, the answer is the same, although a different
attitude toward the Scriptures tends to produce a different Christology.
The New Testament specialist, because of the nature of his work, is all
280 Theological Observer
too likely to fall into the same thought channel, even though he be
a Catholic. The Christian strongly concerned with the shape of the
social order . . . is likely to be disappointed with the moral teaching
of our Lord in the New Testament because its relevance to social order
is remote. Jesus is unquestionably 'the enigma of the centuries.' Even
if the exaggerated claim [?] of the orthodox Protestant to the inerrancy
of the Scriptures were granted, the fact would remain that no person,
human or divine, can be pressed between the leaves of a book. Our
most immediate sources of information about Jesus are not the Scrip-
tures, but the Blessed Sacrament, which carries Him into our heart, and
the Church, which is His mystical body. As the footnote to the Fourth
Gospel exclaims, 'The world itself could not contain the books that
should be written' if we all sat down to tell of our own sojourning with
Jesus." It is remarkable how much unscriptural teaching a writer can put
into a few sentences in such a way that the reader is inclined to believe
that what he says is actually true. Take the first statement: "No per-
son, human or divine, can be pressed between the leaves of a book."
To His opponents Jesus said: "Search the Scriptures . . . they testify
of Me" (John 5:39). Jesus was glad to acknowledge that He "was
pressed between the leaves of a book" (the Old Testament) and for that
very reason demanded that this book should be studied as a living
witness to His person and work. Just so all historical persons are
pressed between the leaves of books. That is true of Adam and of
John Quincy Adams, of Abraham and of Abraham Lincoln, of St. Paul
and of John Paul Jones. Wl1ateve. we know of any historical j,lCLSOil
who lived in the past, we know because that person has been pressed
between the leaves of books. For the editorial writer of the Living
Church to say that no person can be pressed oetween the leaves of
a book, is the sheerest nonsense. In addition, note how he does away
with the Scriptures as the only source and standard of faith. He de-
sires Lebensraum for his rationalistic enthusiasm, his Calvinistic figment
of the immediacy of the Holy Spirit's operation in man. He wants the
Blessed Secrament to carry Jesus into the heart in order that He there
may give information concerning Himself. What he means to say is,
if we were to tell, what we ourselves, in our own hearts, apart from
Scripture, think of Jesus. The enthusiast who rejects Scripture as the
only source and rule of faith ultimately makes his own mind the source
of information about Jesus.
Learning from the Cults. - The Christian Century, in recent issues,
offered a series of articles showing the amazing growth of certain "cults"
in our country since 1926. In an additional article, under the heading
given above, the same periodical places before its readers the question
what other denominations might learn from these aggressive and grow-
ing sects. It says: "The four principal groups in this category, with their
percentages of growth since the census of 1926, are: Seventh-Day Ad-
ventists (68), Assemblies of God (364), Church of God (192), and the
Church of the Nazarene (183). These rates of growth are rather star-
tling when placed beside the general average of 25.6 per cent for all
Protestant and Catholic churches. (Roman Catholic increase was 23.3 per
cent.) Of course, numerically considered, the rapid expansion of the
Theological Observer 281
four groups is not very large. Toge-ther they have arrived at a total
of only 783,276 members, or less -than 2 per cent of the total membership
of all Protestant churches. These sects, then, are making no great in-
roads upon the membership of the older and more conventional bodies.
The 132 little sects which have less than 50,000 members each total
'Only a little over 3 per cent of all Protestants. But," says The Christian
Century, "if the staid a."'1d sober denominations which jog along with
an average increase of 1 or 2 per cent a year have nothing to fear from
the competition of those few zealous groups that are growing ten times
as fast, it does not follow that they have nothing to learn from them.
Those churches grow which are made up of members who believe that
the message of their church is tremendously important to the world,
who are desperately in earnest about communicating it, and who act
accordingly. Such zeal is contagious, and such conviction is commu-
nicable" (italics our own). Illustrating the zeal of these sects, the edi-
torial says: "Take the Seventh-Day Adventists as an example, because
-their reports are most complete. They have 201,215 members in North
America and almost twice as many more in other continents, -the result
of missionary work all over the world. In 1942 the 'tithes and offer-
ings' from the North American members were over $15,000,000, or $77.14
per capita. Tithes alone in that one year were more than the estimated
value of their 4,741 church buildings. The investment in sanitariums,
schools, and publishing houses is several times that amount." Apply-
ing this lesson, the article continues: "What would 8,000,000 Methodists
do if all of them were equally convinced of the importance of what the
Methodist Church is trying to do? Or 10,000,000 Baptists? Or 5,000,000
Lutherans? Or the 44,000,000 Americl'n Prnt<>stants acti~~ tn~ot~er or
even by denominational groups?" The editorial admits that this may
not be possible, but adds: "All we are saying is that, unless something
like that can be done, the respectable and iIltelligent denominations will
continue to be intelligent and respectable and may do much good in
the world, in a small way, but they will grow only at a snail's pace,
and their achievements will be pathetically meager in comparison with
their latent powers. That is what we can learn from the cults."-
There is a very sad reason why some of the "respectable and intelligent
denominations" in our country are not "in earnest about their religion."
The spread of Modernism in their midst has resulted in doctrinal in-
difference, and that means that they, as a group, cannot feel that the
"message of their church is tremendously important to the world." In
fact, it is a declared doctrine of Modernism that certainty of the truth
is fatal to a Church. But what about Lutheranism which, on the whole,
is free from Modernism? Lutheranism is convinced that its message of
salvation by faith in Christ is "tremendously important to the world."
But is Lutheranism really "desperately in earnest about communicating
it and does it act accordingly"? We can hardly say that Lutheranism is
"jogging along" or "growing at a snail's pace." Its rate of growth is
what many are inclined to call "normal." Nevertheless, also for Lu-
theranism, as the article suggests, there is something which it "can
learn from the cults." This something St. Paul suggests in Rom. 12: 11
and other places. J.T.M.
282 Theological Observer
Brief Items. - In Peru, Protestant missionaries have been persecuted.
A recent report states that 16 members of the Peruvian Senate have
requested the government to stop these persecutions.
The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina passed a resolution ask-
ing that courtesy titles of "Mr." and "Mrs." be usee' '-:- ---'-'