Theological Observer - Stirdjndj"BeitgefdjidjtIidje~
1. 'xmerikrr
Lu.theran Statistics. - From the News Bulletin of the National Lu-
theran Council we take the following, giving figures for the Lutheran
Church in America for the year ending December, 1937:
In a single year, from 1936 to 1937, the number of communing
members in the Lutheran churches of America was increased by almost
150,000, or 5 per cent. Today there are 2,884,477 communing Lutherans
in America. This is compared with 3,481,942 confirmed members (in-
creased by almost 140,000, or 4 per cent., over 1936) and 5,114,250 bap-
tized members (increased by more than 125,000, or 2.5 per cent., over
1926). The number of congregations decreased slightly, but the number
of pastors was increased by 159, there being at present 13,024 pastors
in America, serving 19,738 congregations. This may be interpreted as
a favorable development - indicating less duplication, increased effi-
ciency, and more adequate pastoral care. The number of church-schools
was increased by 1,500, or 7 per cent., but the proportionate increases
of church-school officers and teachers and church-school scholars, al-
though substantial, were decidedly smaller. In 1937 there were 24,589
schools served by 179,774 teachers for 2,090,983 scholars in the Lutheran
churches of America.
The second feature, before mentioned, of these 1937 statistics is
that there was indicated a creditable increase in general expenditures.
In a single year congregational expenses leaped from $34,186,294 to
$40,017,827, an increase of almost $6,000,000 or 18 per cent. The increase
was not caused simply by a rise in p:t;,?sperity; in this case it must
indicate a greater stewardship, a heartier "cooperation of church-members
toward the advancement of the Christian message, for these expendi-
tures provide church facilities that make possible that advancement.
This stewardship was evidenced also in contributions for benevolence,
which increased more than $850,000, or 11 per cent., in the single year,
making the total 1937 expenditure (congregation expense plus benevo-
lences) of the Lutheran churches in America $48,668,386. The value of
Church properties was increased by $16,000,000, or 5 per cent., as com-
pared with the 1937 figure of $370,757,229. A.
Conference of Lutheran Free Church. - The Lutheran Free Church,
one of the constituent members of the American Lutheran Conference,
held its annual convention in June at Thief River Falls, Minn. A report
in the News Bulletin of the National Lutheran Council says that nearly
five hundred delegates, of whom 102 were pastors, attended. The Rev.
T. O. Burndtvedt is president. The size of the body is somewhat indi-
cated by the number of pastors. The organization seeks to raise $125,000
for a building on the campus of Augsburg Seminary, Minneapolis. At the
time of the meeting $107,800 had either been donated or pledged. Dr.
Bernard N. Christensen was elected president of the Augsburg Seminary.
This church has a number of missionaries in China. A.
Theological Observer - .ffircl)lidAlcitgefd)icf)t!id)e~ 775
Augnstana Synod Meeting. - From the lengthy report appearing in
the Lutheran Companion on this year's Augustana Synod meeting, held
in New York at the end of June, we take a few items that are of special
interest. Concerning the debate on the proposed congregational con-
stitution, presented again this year by the respective committee, we read:
"The controversial section which deadlocked the delegates assembled in
Omaha last year was accepted this year without revision. It stipulates
that 'no person shall be received into membership, or retained as a mem-
ber, who is associated with an organization or movement inconsistent
with the Christian faith or which gives offense to the Church of God.'''
We rejoice to see this statement, showing that the Augustana Synod
officially is opposing the Christless lodge.
The synod resolved "not only to give substantial aid to the sorely
tried Gossner Mission of the Lutheran Church in India but also, in
case of crisis, to assume responsibility for this field of 140,000 Christians,
which is in danger of being lost to the Lutheran Church."
On the situation in China the report says, "Despite the ravages
and dangers of the war in China our mission in Honan has hitherto
been spared."
Besides conducting Foreign Missions in India and in China, this body
has a mission-field in Africa, where the need of advancing the educa-
tional work is marked.
Pastor Carfelt, speaking on Home Missions, made the correct obser-
vation that "a large indebtedness is a great danger, as it is likely to crush
out the very life of the Church." A.
"Union with Lutherans. - To the Editor: ... There is a righteous
passion for reunion in the hearts of Christians today. If we are to look
beyond orthodoxy and the Old Catholic churches, why not turn to the
Lutherans for fellowship before other Protestants? The family resem-
blance to the world's 70 millions of Lutherans quickens the imagination.
The one serious attempt at Anglo-Lutheran relations in the Conversa-
tions of 1935 with the Augustana Synod in the Midwest got nowhere
simply because that synod is Episcophobian (with good reasons) and
very pietistic theologically. Before we move on to the Presbyterians,
why not return to our German cousins via the United Lutheran Synod?
(Rev.) Norman Godfrey." - The Living Church, July 6, 1938.
Mr. Clinchy Warns the Church to Stay Poor - and Free. - Few
Americans are better informed about relations among the various racial
and religious groups in our population than Everett R. Clinchy, executive
director of the National Conference of Jews and Christians. Mr. Clinchy
has just returned from a two months' stay in Germany, Austria, and
other European countries. On the basis of his observations there he
offers this counsel to the American Church and synagog: Steadfastly
maintain the American separation of Church and State. While individual
church- and synagog-members should be politically active and respon-
sible citizens as a matter of course, the religious societies must be
non-political. Without doubt a degree of dependence upon subventions
of the States has created difficulties for the churches in some other
lands. . .. Watch lest the churches become too rich. Let the churches
776 Theological Observer - .r.ird)fid)~3eitgefd)id)t1id)eiJ
avoid such degree of entanglement with the status quo as to become
apologists for things as they are and neglect their prophetic function ....
Everyone of these five items is worthy of an editorial, but particu-
larly arresting are the third and the last. Mr. Clinchy sees that only as
religion, free from dependence upon any political or economic system,
aggressively commits itself to the building of a just and therefore new
society, can it hope to escape the fate of becoming either the tool or the
victim of some kind of secular totalitarian order. One wonders to what
extent the National Conference of Jews and Christians, a largely middle-
class organization, will agree with such a description of the situation
confronting the churches. - The Christian Century, June 15.
"The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God." - From the sermon on
this text (1 Tim. 1: 11) preached during the recent General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church, North, by Dr. C. E. Macartney, a former Mod-
erator of that Church, we quote the following:
"Years ago a great Christian scholar, Dr. Franz Delitzsch of Leipzig
University, made this prediction. Speaking to his students, he said:
'Young men, the battle is now raging around the Old Testament. Soon
it will pass into the New Testament field; it is already beginning. Finally
it will press forward to the citadel of your faith, the person of Jesus
Christ. There the last struggle will occur. I shall not be here then,
but some of you will. Be true to Christ, stand up for Him, preach
Christ, and Him crucified.''' . . .
"The crying need of the hour in the Protestant Church is a revival
of faith in the pulpits of her churches and in the students in her theo-
logical seminaries. An analysis of the views held by a representative
group of five hundred active ministers of the Presbyterian, Methodist,
Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Congregational, and Evangelical churches
reveals the following saddening and alarming facts: Of the five hundred
ministers in active service who were interrogated, thirteen per cent.
reject the distinguishing doctrine of the Christian Church, the Trinity;
forty-eight per cent. reject the Scriptural account of the creation of the
world by God; thirty-three per cent. no longer believe in the existence
of a devil, whose works Christ said He came to destroy; thirty-eight
per cent. do not believe in special revelation; forty-three per cent. reject
the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures; twenty-eight per cent. do not
believe that the Old Testament prophets were so inspired as to be able
to predict future events; fifty-five per cent. do not believe that the
Bible is wholly free from myth and legend; nineteen per cent. reject the
account of the Incarnation as related by St. Matthew and St. Luke, that
our Lord was born of the Virgin Mary; nineteen per cent. do not believe
that Jesus is equal with God; twenty-four per cent. reject the atonement
of Christ on the cross for the remission of sins; twelve per cent. reject
the resurrection of Christ as related in the gospels; thirty-four per cent.
no longer believe in the future punishment of the finally impenitent;
thirty-three per cent. do not believe in the resurrection of the body;
twenty-seven per cent. do not believe that our Lord will come again to
judge the quick and the dead; thirty-three per cent. reject the fall of
man from a state of original righteousness, as taught in the Old and in
the New Testament; fifty-one per cent. regard the two Protestant Sacra-
Theological Observer - snHl)!icl)~3eit\JeicfJicfJtliJ)e~ 777
ments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as non-essential; and thirty-nine
per cent. think that well-disposed persons who love God and deal justly
should be received into the Church regardless of their beliefs concerning
the great doctrines of salvation."
"This record of the ministers is bad enough. But more appalling is
the record of the unbelief prevailing among two hundred students of five
representative theological seminaries of the Protestant Church in
America. Thirty-five per cent. reject the Trinity; eighty-two per cent.
the devil; ninety-nine per cent. special revelation; ninety-one per cent.
plenary inspiration of the Scriptures; sixty-six per cent. prophecy in the
sense of prediction; ninety-five per cent. hold that the Bible is not free
from myth or legends; fifty-one per cent. reject the virgin birth of our
Lord; thirty-seven per cent. do not believe that Jesus was equal with
God; sixty-one per cent. do not believe in the atonement on the cross
for the sins of the world; thirty-one per cent. do not believe in the
resurrection of Jesus as related in the gospels; seventy-six per cent.
reject hell; sixty-nine per cent. do not believe in the resurrection of
man's body after death; seventy per cent. reject the Fall; fifty-two
per cent. reject the second advent of Christ; seventy-eight per cent.
regard the Sacraments as non-essential, and eighty-five per cent. of these
theological students hold that persons well disposed toward God and man
should be taken into the Christian Church regardless of what they
believe about Christ and the way of salvation ....
"I was once asked to deliver the first lecture on a Foundation estab-
lished by a godly, believing man at an old Christian college. The terms
of the Foundation required a discourse on St. Paul's conception of the
atonement. A minister's widow who brought her two sons to the lecture
and who hopes and prays that one of them may be brought into the
ministry to testify to the great things of God wrote to me afterwards
that one of the faculty had said to her after the lecture, 'There is not
a member of the faculty of this college who believes in the deity of Jesus,
in the inspiration of the Bible, the atonement, or that God answers
prayer.' With such a condition obtaining in our colleges, is it strange that
our theological seminaries should abound in unbelievers? And with so
many of the students in the seminaries unbelievers in the cardinal truths
of Christianity, is it strange that our pulpits resound with the echoes
of unbelief?"
The conclusion of the sermon: "To you who are strangers to the
message of Christ and the Gospel I now with joy proclaim it. This day
to you it is preached. It will meet all your needs; it will solve all your
problems; it will heal all your wounds; it will comfort all your sorrows;
it will take away the stain of all your sins. It is able to keep you from
falling and present you faultless before God in heaven. The time to
believe the Gospel is when you hear it preached to you. Now is the
accepted time. When the people of Antioch at Pisidia refused to listen
to Paul, he turned from them and went unto another city. 'Seeing,' he
said, 'you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting
life, 10, we turn to the Gentiles.' Everlasting life is God's great plan
and gift for you. Do not neglect so great a salvation. Do not judge
yourselves unworthy of it. Choose everlasting life!" E.
77 8 Theological Observer - .Rird)Iid)~8eitgefd)icl')tIid)eil
"Dr. Frank Buchman Is Sixty." - Under this heading the Lutheran
of June 29 brings a report of the celebration of Dr. Buchman's sixtieth
birthday anniversary, from which we cull the following notes, which un-
doubtedly will interest our readers:
"On June 4 millions of people in fifty countries of the world cele-
brated the sixtieth birthday of Frank N. D. Buchman, D. D., a member of
the Allentown Conference of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and
founder and leader of the world movement known as the Oxford Group.
Though the celebration covered a period of ten days, the climax was
reached when on June 4, 1,000 American leaders, educators, clergy, labor
leaders, farmer!, students, and professional people engaged in a forty-
minute two-way telephone celebration with Dr. Buchman and a party
of intimate friends, including leaders of Church and State, gathered in
London, England. The Americans met in Town Hall, Stockbridge, Mass.,
and the party with Dr. Buchman were gathered in the large drawing-
room of Brown's Hotel, Dover Street. Speeches and music, vocal and
instrumental, were amplified both in Stockbridge and London, and this
particular party concluded with the thousand gathered in America sing-
ing 'Happy Birthday to You.'''
"At a dinner given June 1 in honor of Dr. Buchman in London by
the Countess of Antrim thousands of cablegrams were received from all
parts of the world. A cabled news-story from London appearing in the
New York Herald Tribune of June 2 stated that these messages 'came
from Arabs, Jews, and Americans in Jerusalem, from British battleships
at sea, from Washington and American industrial plants, from Danish
farmers, Norwegian fishermen above the Arctic Circle, from Tokyo,
Berlin, Oxford, Burma, South Africa, and Sweden.'''
"In the America-England telephone celebration referred to Dr. Buch-
man said in part: "The fundamental crisis is moral. America must
rearm morally. This is our first and most urgent need. This takes
precedence over all search for security. . .. Moral recovery creates
not crisis, but confidence and unity in all phases of life. How can we
release this moral recovery to the nation? We need a power strong
enough to change human nature and build bridges between man and
man, faction and faction. This starts when everyone admits his own
faults instead of spotlighting the other fellow's.
"God alone can change human nature. That power active in a
minority can be the solvent of a country's problem - one leader changed,
a nation's thinking changed, a world at peace with itself.
"We have not yet tapped the great creative sources in the mind
of God. God has a plan, and the combined moral and spiritual forces of
America can find that plan. We can, we must, and we will generate a
moral and spiritual force that is powerful enough to remake America
and the world." T. L.
Barthianism and the Word of God. - Writing on this subject, Rev.
David S. Clark, D. D., has some remarks which we trust will prove
enlightening.
"According to Barthianism the Scriptures are not the word of God;
for the Scriptures are written, and whatever is written is human,
Theological Observer - .ltircl)liclv(leitgefcl)ictjt(ictje~ 779
and whatever is human is imperfect. This is the paradox, or contra-
di.ction, that looms large in the mind of Barth. But if the written Scrip-
tures, even as they come from the hands of prophets and apostles, or
even the Logia of Christ, are not the word of God, what is? Is there
any word of God in the world, and if so, where can we find it?
"Now, Barthianism is willing to admit that the Scriptures are very
necessary and that the word of God proceeds from the Scriptures, though
the Scriptures themselves are not the word of God. What, then, is the
Barthian word of God?
"Briefly stated, the new cult [?] teaches that the word of God is the
spiritual impression or influence made by the agency of the Holy Spirit
on the mind of the man as he reads the Scriptures. It is sort of an
invisible, intangible, indefinite, psychological something which grips the
mind while it uses the Scriptures as means or medium of instruction
and inspiration. It is this that is put in the place of the written word.
But God might use anything to impress the mind with spiritual lessons;
His providence and power are unlimited, and He works with means or
without means, when and where and how He will. Some distinctioll
must be drawn between the providential operation and the word of
God as such. We had a friend who declared that she was converted
by the ringing of the church-bells. In the Barthian view the church-
bells were as much the word of God as the Scriptures."
Criticizing the position of Barthianism, Dr. Clark correctly says that
in hundreds of places the New Testament refers to what is written as
carrying the revelation and authority of God. A.
Christian Education StTessed by a Modernist. - In the Christian
Century of June 1 a lengthy editorial, written undoubtedly by the
editor-in-chief, Charles Clayton Morrison, is printed which has the title
"While the Church Waits." Several paragraphs appear here dealing with
the problem of the education of our youth, and they are so important
and so much to the point that we print them in full. It is amazing what
conclusions this Modernist arrives at, conclusions which he here in clear
language places before the public, and one feels this man ought to be in
cordial sympathy with our efforts to maintain our richly blessed Chris-
tian day-schools. We now submit his words, asking our readers to
ponder them:
"Space forbids, and the magnitude of the problem makes impossible,
more than a passing mention of the third structural task to which a
waiting Church must devote itself if it hopes to survive the present
interim between two epochs. Religious education, which may be defined
as the Church propagating itself, was long since abandoned by the
Protestant churches and the whole of education given over to secular
control. It is the completely secular character of education which is
more responsible than any other single cause for the alienation of
modern culture from the Christian faith. For more than fifty years
virtually no effort has been made by Protestantism to propagate itself,
save by evangelism, which is far less fruitful than is usually imagined,
while such fruit as it bears is thin and juiceless when compared with
that of a sound educational procedure.
780 Theological Observer - .IThd)lid),;'jcitgejd)id)tficf)es
"By its neglect of the educational process Protestantism has allowed
at least three generations of its youth to grow up without any serious
participation in the Christian faith. Its children are falling between the
two stools of secularism on one hand and Roman Catholicism on the
other. The problem of Christian education must be attacked by the
Church in almost complete disregard of the existing Sunday-school
system and of the so-called scientific type of religious education, which
is an adaptation of the prevailing secular system to religion. Both of
these are pathetically unable to impart the Christian faith to the Church's
youth. One thing is clear, and that is that Protestantism must assume
its obligation in this field in terms far more formidable than perhaps any
of us now envisage. We must think in terms of an expressive and
adequate educational institution, manned and controlled by the Church
and operating in such a manner as to mold the Church's children into
intelligent and loyal members of the Christian community."
Dr. Morrison of course speaks of the Sunday-schools as he knows
them; his generalization may be too sweeping. But that on the whole
he correctly describes conditions mY-st be granted. What a rebuke his
words contain for all those of us who are lukewarm in their support of
our Christian day-schools! A.
The Church of Rome and Masonry. - From an article in Brazil:
The Church and the New Constitution published in ~he Commonweal
of May 27, 1938, we quote the following:
"The reign of Pedro II, lasting over half a century, was a period of
significant economic and social development. But it was also a time of
grave trial and imminent peril to the Brazilian Church. Ominous forces,
which had gained furtive footholds in the last decades of the old regime,
now emerged unashamed to shackle the vitality of Catholic life in high
places. Freemasonry, of the Grand Orient variety, and a laxity in
personal morality settled upon the clergy of the land.
"Specious professions of humanitarian altruism very probably al-
lured the greater number of the clerical members into the lodges. Itself
a product of eighteenth-century Liberalism, Freemasonry had allied
itself with the political and social ideals of the 'Enlightenment.' Political
and social reform advocated by the Masonic lodges seemed desirable
to large numbers of the Brazilian clergy.
"Whatever may be the validity of this explanation, by 1850 by far
the larger part of the clergy had joined Masonic lodges. And whatever
may have been the inducements held out to the clergy to become Masons,
it became obvious after the middle of the century, if it had not before,
that Masonry had adopted a policy that was antagonistic to the Church,
and especially to the Papacy.
"To the credit of large numbers of the clergy it must be admitted
that, when this anti-Catholic aspect of Masonry became obvious, many
severed their connection with the lodges. Many others, however, con-
tinued to retain their membership. This anomalous situation persisted
without serious challenge until 1870, when individual bishops began to
direct their priests to give up their Masonic connections.
"The half decade from 1870 to 1875 were years of trial for the
Theological Observer - ,lhtd)!id)'{3cttgcjcf)icl)t!id)es 781
Brazilian Church. The Masonic forces marshaled all their strength
against the reform movement within the Church which had been in-
augurated in 1870. Pressure at home and misrepresentation of the situ-
ation to the Holy See retarded the efforts of the reforming bishops to
effect the changes so ardently desired. It was not until 1875, when the
Masonic group in the government was forced out under the weight of
public disapproval, that the Church became in any tangible measure
tree to carry out reform." T.L.
A Trag-cciy of R.eligious Education. -Under this heading we read
in the Watchman-Examiner of August 11: "From the point of view of
nationalistic philosophy there has not appeared in recent literature
a more fascinating interpretation of human life than that written by
Lin Yutang in his book The Importance of Living. - In his latest book
Lin reveals that he has reverted to Confucianism, even though he is
the son of a Chinese Methodist preacher and was at one time preparing
for the ministry ....
"The tragedy of his career, however, is related in the section 'Why
J Am a Pagan.' ... As a young Chinese he was brought to this country
and fow1d himself in the center of modernistic theology. There all that
in his childhood he had been taught to believe was essential to the
Christian conviction was openly questioned. He confesses, 'Then, en-
rolling in a theological class and initiated into the holy of holies.
I learned that another article in the creed, the Virgin Birth, was open
to question, different deans in American theological seminaries holding
different views. It enraged me that Chinese believers should be required
to believe categorically in this article before they could be baptized, while
theologians of the same Church regarded it is an open question.'''
A tragedy indeed! A young Chinese Christian is brought from
a pagan country to a Christian country, attends a Christian theological
seminary, and the teachings imbibed there lead him back into pagandom!
Surely, judgment without mercy shall be passed upon these "theologians"
through whose "theology" sheep of Christ are torn out of His arms
and delivered over to Satan. T. L.
II . .:\uSitll1lJ
Validity of Protestant Maniages in Quebec. -Mixed marriages of
Catholics and Protestants have had a hard time in Quebec for many
years, but a happier day is dawning for those who tangle the boundaries
of faith. Heretofore in Quebec, whose population is 85 per cent. Catholic,
the church courts have declared such marriages null and void unless
certain required promises were given by the non-Catholic participants
previous to the granting of a dispensation by the ecclesiastical authorities.
Such an annulment was invariably ratified by the civil courts, and the
concurrence of the civil judges was justified on the ground that "the
religious principles of old French law have been perpetuated in the
Canadian constitutions of 1774, 1791 and 1867." Now a higher voice has
spoken. Recently in Montreal, Chief Justice Greenshields of Canada's
Superior Court canceled an annulment granted by a Catholic judge
because "the minister (a Protestant) was incompetent to perform the
marriage and because of a technicality about witnesses." The Chief
782 Theological Observer - Rird)lid)={leitgefd)id)t1id)es
Justice, himself an Anglican, gave as his reason for the decision: "Such
authority as the Church has in civil matters is given to it by the law
of the land, and the Church, and every church, is subservient to, and
in no sense dominates, the law. . .. Any Church may bless or curse
a marriage to its ecclesiastical heart's content, but it does not in any
way affect the validity of the marriage." - The Lutheran
Xagung be£l @~efuttbfomitee£l be£l l:\ut~erifd)en !illeUfunbCltt£l bum 21. lJt£l
ilum 25. mat 1938 tit Uppfnln. SJieru6er 6eridjtet D. SJann£l mlje bes riinge~
ten in ber ,,21. @: . R Sf." (91r. 23, ~aljrg. 71) mit 6efonberer mdonung ber
brei meratung§:gegen[tiinbe in biefem ~aljr. m3a§: iluniidjft ba£l SJ i 1 f §: ~
ID e r f bes .I1onbeni§: 6etrifft, fO IDirb hies im fommenben ~aljr ettua 80,000
~ollar§: erforbern, unh iltoar in lEertoenbung fUr foldje 2toede toie bie refor~
matori[dje metuegung in ber Uhaine, bie \:Surforge ber jungen .I1irdjen auf ben
L1erfdjiebenen lutr)erifdjen WUffion§:feIbern ufto. ~er niidjfte Sfonbent foU im
WCai 1940 in ~ljHaberpljia ftattfinben; unb foUen bie folgenben brei SJaupt~
tljemata 6efprodjen toerben: ,,~ie lutljerifdje Sfirdje ljeute. 1. Sfirdje, 'm3ort
unb @5arrament. 2 . ~ie Slircf)e unb bie .I1irdjen. 3. ~ie Sfirdje in ber m3ert."
~ief e 5tljemata finb in ber gegentoiiriigen 2dt fUrtoaljr bon m3idjtigfeit unb
[oUten nidjt bom rein afabemifdjen, fonbern bom 6i6lifdj~praftifdjen @5tanb~
punft aus 6eljanbeft toerben, unb atoar [0, baj3 man ilum naren lEerftiinbni§:
bariiber fommt, toa§: bie ber[djiebenen Sfirdjen tun £onnen unb muffen, ba~
mit e§: IDomoglicf) il u r r e dj ten @: i n i g f ei tin b e r .2 e lj r e u n b
~ r a 6 i §: f 0 m m t. ~enn gerabe ljier ljaped e§:. D . .2Uje feT6ft gi6t bie§:
3ll, inbem er bie @5djtoierigfeiten ber Umorganifation be§: m3ertfonbeni§: 6e~
[cflreiot. @:r 6emedt: ,,@:§: ljat fidj im lEerIauf ber nun faft atoanaigjiilj~
rigen