Full Text for CTM Book Review 9-7 (Text)

Qtnnrnr~tu ml}tnlngital flnnt41y Continuing LEHRE UND VVEHRE MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LUTH. HOMILETIK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Vol. IX July, 1938 No.7 CONTENTS Page A Course in Lutheran Theology. Th. Engelder . _______ .... _ .... _____ . __ .. _. __ .____ 481 Kleine Danielstudien. L. Fuerbringer ______________________ . __ . __ .. __ .. ___ ... . __ __ ... ..... 495 Sermon Study on Acts 5:34-42. Th. Laetseh ._ . . _ .... .. _ .. _ ...... ____ ._____ 506 Miscellanea __________ ._ . . ___ . ____ . _____ . ____ .._____ . _______ .. _____________________ . __ . __ . ___ __ .. _ .. _. __________ .. 519 Theological Observer. - Kirchlich-ZeitgeschichtIiches . . ____ ._ ._ .. _ ._. ____ 530 Book Review. - Literatur _ . _________ .. ______ .. _. ______ ... ____ . ______ . __ . .. .. ... . _ .. _____ . 553 BIn Predlger mUSII nleht aDeln lOel- den, also d888 er die Schafe unter- welle. wle s1e reehte Chr1lten 80llen RIn, IIOndem auch daneben den Woe1- fen lOeh1'4m, daM s1e dle Schafe nlcht ansreifen und mlt faIscher Lehre ver- fuehren und Irrtum elnfuehren. Luthn Es 1st keln Ding, das dle Leute mehr bel der KJrche behaelt denn die gute Predlgt. - Apologia, An. 24. If the trumpet give an uncerta1D sound who shaD prepare himself to the batUe? - 1 COT.14, B. PnbIisbed for the BY. Loth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States CONCOBDIA PUBLISIIIN'G BOUSE, St. LouJs, Mo. .ARCI:I V Book Review - 2itetatut 553 Book Review - 2itefatuf Novum Testamentum Graece. Cum apparatu critico ex editionibus et libris manu scriptis collecta. @5tuttgatt, !l\tibilegierte !!BUttembetgifd)e mibefanj'taH. ~ud) an biefet @5teUe mad)en wit wiebet aUfmedfam aUf bie ausge3eid)neten ~usgaben bes neuteftamentrid)en :te;ttes, bie bief e ~a~r3e~nte ~inburd) bon bet !l\tibHegierten ~Urttembergifd)en mibefanj'taH ~etausgegeben wotben finb. !!Bo~f bie meiften unfmr 2efer ~aben biefe ~usgaben fd)on bide ~a~te ~inbutd) ge~ litaudjt. Untet ben neueften ~uffagen finb befonbets 3U nennen bie 15., bie audj in 3e~n :teifen aU ~aben ift, unb jebet :teH eignet fid) fein SUt ~itna~me aUf lReifen, wie 3. m. bie (\fpiftef em bie lRomet obet bie ein3efnen (\fbangefien. )))ie neuefte ~uffage, bie lRe3enfent eben in feinet .ltlaffenatbeit gebtaud)t, nimmt me3ug aUf bie neueften ~unbe in 5l!g~pten unb ij't affo boUtg up to date. !l\. (\f. St t e t man n ~ie lBriefe an bie :t~effllronidjef. ftbetfett unb ausgelegt bon Lic. ®et~arb !l\utttammer. ®aftab @5d)fiibmanns mer!agsbud)~anblung, 2eip3ig unb S)ambutg. 88 @5eiten 5lhx81f4. !l\teis: Stattoniert, RM.1.70, gebunben, RM.2.50. ~n biefem weitmn manbe ber IIlSibel~ilfe fUr bie ®emeinbeu ~at bet met~ faffer benfefben @5tanbpunU innege~aUen, bet aud) in ben anbem lSiinben bet @5etie im gtoflen unb gansen 3utage tritt. )))ie ~usfegung, bie fid) eng an bie neue ftbetfetung bet mtiefe anfd)lieflt, ift witHid) etbaufid) unb wenbet bas !!Bort ®ottes aUf bie gegenwartige @5adjfage an. ~iit einen 2ut~etanet finb aUerbings bie ~usfU~tungen 3U 2' :t~eff. 2 faum genUgenb, ttotbem bet metfaffet aud) et~ wti~nt, bafl man in bet lRefotmations3eit o~ne Umfd)wdfe biefes .ltal'itef aUf ben !l\allft unb fein lReid) gebeutet ~at. Unb fo mag mand)em, bet dne boUftiinbige (\f;tegefe aUet !!Bortet unb @5atteile fud)t, biefe obet jene ~usfU~tung nid)t ge~ niigen. )))abei bleibt abet wa~t, bafl bie ~utegung bes mud)es aud) bem etfa~~ teuen (\f;tegeten bon gtofltem ~ed fein witb. (\fs finben fid) in bet ~uslegung immet wiebet @5ate, bie aud) in unfem Stteifen lSetiidfid)tigung finben fomen. ,{lu 2 :t~eff. 3, 2 bemedt bet metfaffet fd)on in feinet ~infU~tung: lI)))as gilt bon bem ®fauben, bet gan3en (\fruft mad)t mit bet g an 3 e n !!Ba~t~eit bet mibel, aud) mit i~tem fetten !!Bott, bon bem ®lauben, bet ,Stomm, S)(\ftt ~(\ffu!' beten (Dffenb. 22, 20) unb ein fej'tes ~men ba3u fpted)en fann./I (@5. 12.) lI~n feinem ~iffionsbetid)t ~anbeU es fid) alfo nid)t um Hrd)lid)e 6tatij'tU unb um bie ~inan3~ fage, fonberu um ben ®faubensftanb./I (6. 34.) Stein mibelforfd)et witb bies mud) o~ne 6egen fefen. !l\. (\f . .It t e t man n The Lamb, the Woman, and the Dragon. An Exposition of the Revela- tion of St. John. By Albertus Pieters, D. D. Zondervan Publish- ing House, Grand Rapids, Mich. 383 pages, 51f4x7%. Price, $2.00. Although the subtitle designates this volume as an exposition of the Apocalypse, it is not a continuous exegesis of the book but rather a series of 24 chapters dealing with the important points and visions of the Revelation of St. John. Seven chapters of Dr. Pieters's exposition are devoted to introductory questions: Who Wrote the Apocalypse, and When; Other Apocalypses; God's Picture-book; The Historical Interpretation; 554 Book Review - .\3itetlltUt The Futurist Interpretation; The Principles of Interpretation; A Bird's- eye View of Revelation. The author accepts the Johannine authorship and believes the book to have been written during the last decade of the first century, under Emperor Domitian. Chapters VIII to XXIV are devoted to a fairly detailed discussion of the book, the author himself stating: "This is not a commentary in the ordinary sense of the word. It is rather a discussion of some of the outstanding problems in the book of Revelation. Verse-by-verse exposition is not attempted." (P.5.) This part of the book contains much interesting material, which, how- ever, is not always convincing. Apparently the author did not go into the extensive Lutheran literature on the Antichrist, his conclusions at the end of chapter XVI being, among others: "That it is highly doubtful whether the Antichrist of St. John and the Man of Sin of St. Paul are the same. . .. That the words of St. Paul do most probably refer to the coming of some great religious leader, a renegade Christian, who will be the head and front of a great apostasy in the Church, immediately be- fore the second coming of our Lord, but contain no ground to attribute to him also political power." (P. 205.) With regard to the thousand years, the author, at the end of chapter XXII, states: "Allow me now to summarize this Preterist interpretation, which is the one I commend to the reader." Pastors who are making a special study of the Book of Revelation may consult the book with benefit, but will do well to com- pare many of its statements with those of good Lutheran commentaries. P. E. KRETZMANN The Peril of Modernizing Jesus. By Henry J. Cadbury. The Macmillan Company, New York. 1937. 216 pages, 5xH'2. Price, $2.00. The preface informs us that here there are submitted lectures which were delivered in 1935 at King's Chapel, Boston, under the auspices of the Lowell Institute. That the material was gathered to be presented in lecture form undoubtedly helps to account for the vivacious style. What the author sets out to accomplish can be deduced in part from the head- ings of the seven chapters: Anachronism in Thinking of Jesus; The Cause and Cure of Modernization; The Jewishness of the Gospels; Jesus and the Mentality of Our Age; Limitations of Jesus' Social Teach- ing; Purpose, Aim, and Motive in Jesus; The Religion of Jesus. Notes and an index enhance the usefulness of the work. The author is a thor- oughgoing Modernist, and much that he says fills us with grief and has to be rejected. But he wields a two-edged sword. While he in many a sentence wounds the sensibilities of those who believe in the deity of Christ and the redemptive value of His work, he causes a good deal of havoc among the ideas which his fellow-religionists have fondled and nurtured. As the title indicates, he opposes the tendency to ascribe modern ideas which many churches of the twentieth century are proud of to Christ. He particularly annihilates the notion that Jesus taught what is now known as the social gospel. To ascribe to our Lord the sociological tenets which often are now praised as the essence of the message of Jesus he calls an anachronism. He complains there are many of them, and he is induced to speak of an experience of his own in Jerusalem. "I will admit that as a sightseer in the churches of Jeru- salem I must have passed over many a glaring anachronism, until one Book Review- £itetlltut 555 day, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, 1 saw a real wrist watch on the arm of a statue of the Virgin. That at least was an innovation one degree too much. Anachronism there was blatant and absurd. To see a modern timepiece on a modern Arab is strange enough; how much more so with the first-century Palestinian peasant woman!" (P.7.) In outlining how different the teaching of Jesus was from that of the modern social gospel, the author points out that Jesus rarely, if ever, dealt with social institutions as such; that He furthermore did not "know" class interests, class consciousness, class ideals; that He dealt with individuals as their own situation demanded rather than to consider the interests, privileges, rights, or duties of the other parties, and that in His teaching there is lacking the appeal to social motive. It seems to us that, if Modernists read and studied Cadbury, they would be deterred from making Jesus the champion of their sociological messages. The point of view of Dr. Cadbury, who, by the way, is Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, throughout the work is historical. He is not necessarily out of sympathy with the social gospel, but he does not hesitate to call it a historical error to attribute this message to Jesus. Thus, though the theology of the author is altogether subversive, he furnishes excellent historical material for the proper understanding of the teachings of Jesus. W. ARNDT Prophecy's Light on Today. By Charles G. Trumbull. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 191 pages, 5X7%. Price, $1.50. One of the most harmful features of the chiliastic delusion is its perversion of the Christian hope. Scripture fixes the hope of the Chris- tian on the bliss of heaven, millennialism on the mythical reign of Christ on earth during the millennium. In reading the glorious promises con- nected with the second coming of Christ, the consistent premillennialist can see hardly anything but the glamor of a fabled earthly reign of Christ. The book before us ("most of the chapters of which appeared as a series of articles in the Sunday-school Times during 1937") is a case in point. The passages Titus 2:13 ("looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ"), John 14:2,3 ("I will come again and receive you unto Myself"), Heb.9:28 ("Christ shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation"), Job 19:25-27; Eph.1:15-23; PhiL 2:10, 11; 3:20,21; 2 Tim. 4:8, etc., etc., are unhesitatingly and persistently applied to a coming of Christ for the inauguration of a millennial reign on earth. "So many Christian people are rejoicing today in 'that blessed hope' of the Lord's personal, visible, bodily return to establish His kingdom on earth and bring in the mil- lennium of His personal reign" (p. 36). "'That blessed hope' of the believers, waiting for the Lord's return, when He will establish His kingdom on earth. . .. Eden conditions will be restored; wars will cease. . .. The throne of David is still empty; but it shall be occupied, here on earth, by David's greater Son. . .. From Armageddon the King will move on in triumph until He establishes again the throne of David and reigns over the whole earth" (pp.26, 32, 160). "1 Cor. 13:13 tells us of three precious things that abide: faith, hope, love. 'Faith believes that the Bible is the whole Word of God,' believes it 'from cover to cover'; 556 Book Review - 13iteratut and that is Fundamentalism. 'Hope' is the blessed hope of the Lord's return, or premillennialism. So we may read: 'And now abideth funda- mentalism, premillennialism, love, these three'" (p.155). Dr. Trumbull has no intention, of course, of denying or even minimizing the bliss of heaven, but under the spell of the chiliastic delusion he cannot find time to stress it. He mentions it twice, perhaps three times. On page 58 we find the bare statement: "'They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.' And why? 'For the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes,' Rev. 7:17 (R. V.)." And on page 69 heaven is barely alluded to: "The second coming of Christ, being His personal, visible, bodily return to establish His kingdom on earth and to reign over Israel and the world for a thousand years, after which will come 'a new heaven and a new earth,' Rev. 21:1, is the goal, climax, and consummation of Bible prophecy." Heaven is barely mentioned; all the glorious passages quoted above and all the rest "are plain predictions of a glorious future for God's chosen people here on earth, of the earthly millennium, or Golden Age, which, the Scriptures tell us, can come only when Christ comes again" (p.31). And the introduction by Dr. Howard A. Kelly contains this paragraph: "Is it not a great, obvious, important truth that we cannot grow into a living apprehension of more advanced truths until we have fully apprehended the antecedent underlying basic truths? First, the virgin birth of the Son of God - Son of Man; then His sacrificial life and crucifixion; then His resurrection and ascension; to be followed by His glorious return, to reign with His saints, to the world where He was so dishonored." There it stops. The basic article of eternal life - which Dr. Kelly, of course, accepts-is not mentioned. We are in agreement with much of what is said in this book, a fun- damentalist writing. Much, too, of what is said concerning the signs of Christ's second coming - one of these signs being the emergence and spread of Modernism - is Scriptural and timely. But parts of this sec- tion and the tenor of the entire book are unscriptural. Scripture tells us, and we must tell the world and the Church, that Christ is coming again, personally, visibly, etc. The premillennialists are doing that. But while Scripture tells us that Christ, at His second coming, will at once judge the unbeliever and take the believer with Him to heaven, the consistent premillennialist is fixing the hope of the Christian on a chimera. TH. ENGELDER What Is Lutheranism? By Wm. Dallmann, D. D. Northwestern Pub- lishing House, Milwaukee, Wis. 38 pages, 4lhx7. Price, 10 cts.; in quantities, 8 cts., plus postage. Order from Concordia Publishing House, 3558 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, Mo. To Dr. Dallmann, God indeed has given a long and blessed writing ministry, the present tract being the 53d among the titles listed for ad- vertisement, and among these are very large volumes, such as Jesus (third edition), Paul, Peter, John, etc. In the brochure before us Dr. Dallmann shows the Christian character of Lutheranism, and he does this by adducing testimonies from non-Lutheran sources. The topics Book Review- £itC1:atur 557 around which the subject-material is centered are: The Gospel, Faith, the Church, Justification and Election, and the Holy Communion. All these fundamental doctrines of Lutheranism, as the non-Lutheran wit- nesses attest, are truly Scriptural. Here, then, is a tract of great value, which ought not only to be spread among non-Lutherans, but also to be carefully studied in Christian day-schools, Sunday-schools, catechumen classes, Bible societies, etc., since it sets forth distinctive Lutheran doc- trines, and these as witnessed in their Biblicality by scholars of inter- national prominence outside the pale of the Lutheran Church. For the sake of the common people a glossary of proper nouns and theological terms might be added (Duns Scotus, Peter d'Ailly, Calvin, Transubstan- tiation, Lateran Council, etc.). On page 20 the alii, alii non might be explained more fully and the general expository truth be added that those who are saved are saved solely by grace, while those who are damned are lost through their own fault. The difficulty of the alii prae aliis arises only if we compare "one with another." We wish that Baptism, so much in controversy today, could have been added to the subjects treated in this brochure, which ought to receive special pub- licity in our papers in this centennial year when Lutheranism will be brought to the notice of millions by the mere fact of our ocean-to-ocean celebration. J. THEODORE MUELLER Who Is the Holy Spirit? A Study of the Word of God Concerning His Person, Office, and Work. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 124 pages, 51f4X7%. Price, $1.25. In the Foreword the author writes: "The Holy Spirit is the neglected, if not the almost forgotten, Person of the Holy Trinity, and the obligation is upon all of us to make Him known." This he attempts to do by pre- senting in so many chapters the Holy Spirit's Personality, Office, Sov- ereignty, Limiting (He does all things in due time and order), Baptism (he discusses this mooted subject with much sanity), Filling, Sanctifying, Empowering, Objectives. A graduate of Princeton Seminary, in its prime, Dr. Frost everywhere shows himself a thorough, painstaking, scholarly theologian, and his firm fundamentalistic attitude makes his book a joy to every Christian believer. For many years he was connected with the China Inland Mission, and (a voluminous writer) especially his "Medi- tations on Important Truths," About the ora Faith, published years ago, won for him many friends in America and Great Britain. Although his presentations are not always in accord with our Lutheran Confessions (denial of private confession and absolution; millennialism, Calvinism), his monograph makes interesting and instructive reading also for Lu- theran ministers, especially since he invariably goes back to the Bible to support his declarations. There is a winsome spirit of deep spiritual devotion running through the entire treatise. J. THEODORE MUELLER Reconciliation and Justification. By Rev. Theo. Dierks, S. T. D. Concor- dia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. 173 pages, 6X9. Price, 90 cts. This is a thorough and instructive study of the doctrine of recon- ciliation and Justification as taught in Scripture and the early Christian Church. Originally a doctor's thesis, it is now offered for larger use and wider dissemination in book form. First the author presents the doctrine 558 Book Review - mteratur as taught by Christ and the apostles and then as it was confessed in the Christian Church, in the first century after the apostles, by such men as Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin and Irenaeus, and in such writings as the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Second Epistle of Clement, and the Epistle to Diognetus. His "finds" he presents in the "Conclusion," in which he points out that most of the Church Fathers did not hold fast to the objective reconciliation and justification as an accomplished fact, so that in the course of time also the doctrine of subjective justification became easily corrupted by the infusion of work elements. A very fine bibliography is added for refer- ence, while a very helpful synoptic index will aid the reader in quickly orienting himself in case of reference requirements. We heartily recom- mend this learned but limpid treatise to our pastors. Hasn't the doctrine here presented become a sort of doctrina incognita also to some of us? J. THEODORE MUELLER Reaching Upward, or Man's Age-Long Search for Truth. By C. D. Whiteley. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Mich. 182 pages, 5xH'2. Price, $1.50. This book is directed against the theory "that religion has been a gradual development and that it came up through animism and polytheism." The author, a Presbyterian minister in Albemarle, N. C., surveys the leading pagan religions and shows that in man's search for God there is no trace of a gradual development, but rather that in all pagan and naturalistic religions there has been a marked and gradual degradation. Dr. Whiteley includes a chapter on Modernism, which is the most recent effort "to find God apart from supernatural revelation" (p. 97) and is nothing more than "the naturalism of all past ages dressed in present-day finery" (p.96). The two concluding chapters deal with God's revelation to man in the Old and the New Testament. The book was not written for scholars. The author's interest is that of the pastor who wants to safeguard the youth of the Church against the vagaries of the pseudo-anthropologists, who in the name of psychology, philos- ophy, or history deny supernatural revelation. The author's style and his approach to the problem, which is distinctly Fundamental, prompt us to recommend this book. It should prove helpful to those of our laity who have been disturbed by the theories of naturalism. :!Ier Q$ottcflgeilanfc in net: Weft. inon ~aul \Ro~rbad). lBerfin~~eml>e~of. 263 e:eHen 5%X7lJ4. F.E.MAYER ~ans~lBott~inerlag, :!let inetfaffer ift ein bcfannter e:cf)riftfteUer :!leutfd)Ianb~, ~atte eine t~~o~ fogi](~e lliusbHbung genoffen, ~at bann aber, tuie cr im inortuort fcf)reibt, "bem t~eologifcf)en 13e~ramt bor balb bier ~a~r3e~nten ent]agt, tuei! mir bortueg ber~ tuel:)l:t tuurbe, gegen ben lBetenntniS3tuang au luirten. e:o tuanbte icf) micf) 3ur 'Utbeit fUr ben beutfcl)en @ebanfen in ber lllieIt; aber icf) ~abe nie aufge~iitt, bie d)riftricf)e \Refigion fUr cine ~auvttuur3el gefunben bBffifcf)en :!lenIms aU ~arten". ~n Illia~r~eit be!iimpft er bie cf)riftricf)e \Religion, befUmvft bie incrbafinfpitation, bie mo]aifcf)e Iliutorfcf)aft bes ~entateucf)s, nennt bie e:cf)tiften IliUen unb lJl:eucn ~eftaments ,,(,\'r3cugniffc 3cUriel) unD in~almcf) boneinanbet bcrfcf)iebener rerigiBfcr inotfteUungstuerten". (e:. 208.) wtan tuirb <7%. Price, $1.25. From Zondervan Publishing House, Gmnd Rapids, Mich.: My Human Best. Spring quarter of the "Qllipt H(mr Series." By Richard Ellsworth Day. 185 pages, 5lj4)<7%. Price, 35 cts. NOTICE TO OUR SUBSCIUBERS In order to render satisfactory service, we must have our current mailing-list correct. The expense of maintaining this list has been materially increased. Under present regulations we are subject to a "fine" on all parcels mailed to an incorrect address, inasmuch as we must pay 2 cents for every notification sent by the postmaster on a parcel or periodical which is 1llldeliverable because no forwarding address is available or because there has been a change of address. This may seem insignificant, but in view of the fact that we have subscribers getting three or more of our periodicals and considering our large aggregate subscription list, it may readily be seen that it amo1lllts to quite a sum during a year; for the postmaster will address a notification to each individual periodical. Our subscribers can help us by notifying us - one notification (postal card, costing only 1 cent) will take care of the addresses for several publications. We shall be very grateful for your cooperation. Kindly consult the address label on this paper to ascertain whether your subscription has expired or will soon expire. "July 38" on the label means that your subscription has expired. Please p"y your agent or the Publisher promptly in order to avoid interruption of service. It takes about two weeks before the address label can show change of address or acknowledgment of remittance. When paying your subscription. please mention name of publication desired and exact name and address (both old and new, if change of address is requested). CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE, st. Louis. Mo.