(!tonror~ttt UJ4roingtral :!Innt41y Continuing LEHRE UND WEHRE MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LuTH. HOMILETIK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Vol. vm June, 1937 CONTENTS The Pastor and Mission Opportunities. Kleine Hesekielstudien. L. Fuerbringer Arthur Brunn - A Few Remarks on Col. 2, 18. 19a. L. T. Woblfeil - What the Liberal Theologian Thinks of Verbal Inspiration. Th. Engelder No.6 Page 419 41-1 _ __ ill 433 Sermon Study on 1 John 4, 12-14. Theo. Laet,;ch __ . ___ . _ . _______ __ 453 Outlines on the Eisenach Epistle Selections _ 410 Theological Observer. - Kirchlicb-Zeitgeschichtliches _ _ 468 Book Review. - Literatur Ein Predlger muss ntcht allein ",ei- den, also dass er die Schafe lDlter- weise. wle aie rechte ChrIsten sollen seln. sondern auch daneben den Woel- fen ",ehnn, daBs sle die Schafe ntcht anerelfen und mit :falsc:her Lehre ver- fuehren lDld Irrtum einfuehren. Luther 479 Es ist keln Ding. das die Leute mehr bel der Kirche behaelt denn die gute Predlgt. - Apologie, Arl. 24 If the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shan prepare himself to the battle? - I Cor. 14. B Published for the Ev. Loth. Synod of Missouri. Ohio, and Other States CONCORDIA PUBLISHING BOUSE, St. Louis, Mo. Concordia Theological Monthly Vol. VIII JUNE, 1937 No.6 The Pastor and Mission Opportunities Have we become guilty of introducing faulty terminology by speaking of a certain group of pastors as "missionary pastors"? The impression seems to be abroad among us that missionary pas- tors are the men who are working in parishes under the super- vision and control of some mission board. We speak of so many mission-stations. A given synodical District lists so many mission- aries at work in the Home Mission field. Synod has so many mis- sionaries in the Foreign Mission field. These are the "missionary pastors." However, the pastor of old St. John's on Foch Boulevard is not a missionary pastor. His church is crowded to the doors every Sunday. His hands are so full taking care of the members of the church that there is not even a thought of mission activities. Of course, it goes without saying that in certain localities mis- sionary opportunities present themselves in greater abundance and in greater variety than in other localities. The great metropolitan centers of our country offer a wider field for missionary activities than some little hamlet in an isolated desert section. However, every pastor ought to be a missionary pastor, and the topic "The Pastor and Mission Opportunities" ought to be of interest not only to those who are under a mission board, but to every pastor. It may not be amiss for a moment or two to rethink our mis- sion obligation. Basic to such study of course is the fact of uni- versal sin and universal grace. We need to remember that by nature all men are under the wrath of God and children of per- dition. What must a man do to be lost? Nothing at all. Just remain what he is by nature. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." "Ye must be born again." "There is not a just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not." "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant for in Thy sight no man living is justified." "There is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." 27 410 The Pastor and Mission Opportunities Then, too, we must rethink God's plan of salvation. "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Just as in the wilderness all Israelites who had been bitten by the poisonous serpents must perish unless they looked up at the ser- pent which Moses had lifted up on the cross, so all men must perish, since all have been poisoned by sin, unless they look up to the cross on Calvary and, trusting in the forgiving grace of God, pray in sincere repentance, "0 Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon me!" All this may seem very commonplace. We know, of course, that Modernists have long ago discarded these basic facts of sin and grace, but, thank God, we have retained them. Yes, we have retained them in our system of dogmatics; but do we always make the practical application of these basic facts of Christianity when we are thinking missions? One is reminded of the experience that is told of two men who were partners in business. The one was a church-member and the other was not. They had been in busi- ness together for many years. One Sunday morning they happened to meet. The church-member was on his way to church, and the other was on his way to the golf links. Said Mr. Golfer to Mr. Church-member, "John, when are you going to give up this hypoc- risy?" "Hypocrisy? What do you mean?" was the answer. "Why," said Mr. Golfer, "your whole churchgoing is hypocrisy. According to your religion I am on the way to hell. You know that, but all these years you never said a word to me about it. You never warned me. You never urged me to change my way of life. You just let me go. That is why I think you are a hypocrite. You don't believe your religion." How many of us theoretically believe the facts of sin and grace and yet fail to make the practical application of these facts to our every-day experiences with our fellow-men! According to our religion everybody who has not yet accepted Jesus as His personal Savior is an object of our missionary activ- ities. We know that, but we so often forget to apply this knowledge. One is sometimes tempted to say that in times past the Lu- theran Church of America has not been a great missionary Church. True, the Lutheran Church, also our branch of the Lutheran Church, grew; it even grew very rapidly. But its growth was not the result of our missionary activities. From the very beginning of our existence we have had our Home Mission work. But was it mission-work? Was it not rather conservation work? Fellow- Lutherans, fellow-Christians, fellow-believers, came from across the seas and fairly beckoned us to send them preachers and teachers. The Pastor and Mission Opportunities 411 This source of supply has been stopped. We must learn to do real mission-work, gather in the unchurched who have no Lu- theran and no German background. It seems so difficult for some of us to learn that. We are so much like Peter. At first he did not think in terms of the Gentile world in connection with the preach- ing of the Gospel. To be sure, Jesus had commanded the disciples to go out into all the world. Jesus had again and again demon- strated the fact that also the Gentiles shall have a place in the Kingdom. But Peter rarely thought of them as possible objects of his missionary activities. The .Lord first had to show Peter by a vision that the Gentiles also can be made clean by the blood of the Lamb. Neither was Peter alone in this. When he came back home, the other disciples were amazed. To think that Peter should go into the house of a Gentile! Peter must make long explanations why it was that he dared to do such a thing. Just so it seems difficult for some of us or for some of our people to learn this lesson, which must be learned, that others, too, have an immortal soul; that others, too, are under the curse of sin; that others, too, are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. We must learn that we are debtors to all men and are under obligation to bring unto them the saving truths of the Gospel of Jesus. The time must come when we no longer report for our church-papers as a special news item the fact that in a given city church there are people of so many different nationalities. Three steps are essential in our mission-work. First, contacts must be made with individuals. Secondly, individuals need to be won for Christ. Thirdly, neophytes need to be trained for church- membership in local congregations. Contacts need to be made. Lapsed church-members and former members of other churches offer many opportunities for contacts. Especially in our larger urban centers many of our church-members fall away from the faith before we are aware of the fact. What with the many removals, the mixed marriages, the strange associations, there must always be a large group on the border line, who must if at all possible be reclaimed. Then we have a large group of people in the sectarian churches who are heartily sick of the strange "gospel" which is being preached to them. They are like the blind groping after light, that light which we have in such rich abundance. Then there is that large group of people outside of the pale of the Christian Church, heathen people right here in a land in which the Gospel of the Christ has been preached from the very beginning. Many avenues for contacts open themselves. In smaller com- munities it is usually not so difficult to make contacts. Everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows everybody's business. It 412 The Pastor and Mission Opportunities is much more difficult to make the acquaintance of people in our larger centers. The closer people are huddled together, the farther they seem to be removed from one another. Under such conditions the pastor must continually be on the lookout for prospects. He must build up his list of prospects. This can be done in many dif- ferent ways. Sometimes it may seem a waste of time to make a house-to-house canvass in order to find prospects. Unless people are antagonistic to the Church, they do not care to be put on the spot, as it were. A much better source of information concerning the religious status of people are opportunities offered at baptisms, marriages, burials, the children in Sunday-school, the parents of the Sunday-school members, through neighbors, friends, acquain- tances, the grocer and the butcher and the druggist. The press and the radio are wonderful methods of making contacts. Especially in communities which are not too large the pastor will not find it so difficult to make regular contributions to the weekly or the daily newspaper. By doing so he will introduce himself to many people with whom perhaps he could never make any contacts otherwise. Often people will seek him and make it their business to make his acquaintance because they read some of his articles or some of his sermonets in the paper. Or when they do meet him, it will not take long for them to feel at home. They have known him for a long time although they never saw his face. Just so the radio offers valuable opportunity to introduce oneself and the message which one is preaching. The radio opens channels which otherwise would remain closed. Our pastors ought to embrace every oppor- tunity to get on the air. They ought to seek opportunities to get on the air, not only in national broadcasts, but particularly also in local broadcasts. We have in mind, for instance, the very frequent broadcasts of our missionary in the Adirondacks. Those morn- ing devotions which he sends out over the air reach practically everybody in the Adirondack section. When the missionary comes, he need not explain at great length who he is. People know who he is although they have never seen him. They have heard him. They are happy to make the personal acquaintance of the man who has spoken to them so often in the morning devotion. In that way local broadcasts open many doors which otherwise would remain closed. Having, then, made our contacts, the next step is to win the new acquaintance for Jesus. Do not try to win him for the church. Convict him of his sin. Show him his Savior. Give the Holy Ghost a chance to work on his heart through the Gospel which you are presenting to him. This is the type of work which requires much skill, much patience, and a great deal of time. It cannot be done in wholesale fashion. Conversions are not effected in wholesale The Pastor and Mission Opportunities 413 lots. We may gather a group of people for the purpose of training them for church-membership, but we cannot convert people in groups. Singly, individually, one by one, souls are won for Jesus. Remember Jesus at Jacob's Well dealing with one lonely soul. He must go up into the region of Tyre and Sidon because there is that one woman of Canaan. He goes into the house of Zacchaeus to bring him salvation. Likewise we find Paul on his missionary journeys often dealing with individuals. There is Sergius Paulus, the jailer of Philippi, Lydia, and many others. At one time when he dealt with a crowd, namely, in Athens, they laughed at him. The mob spirit got hold of them. And so we must do our work from house to house. It is work which requires a great deal of time and endless patience and an understanding of the human soul and its needs. In this work we must take nothing for granted. We are now not dealing with lapsed church-members or with people from other denominations, but with people who need to be won for Jesus of whom so far they have heard little or nothing. Much of this work can be done through well-trained members of the church. Indeed, why should it not? Give our people some- thing to do in the real work of the church and do not limit them to raising money with their sales and their bazaars and their sup- pers and entertainments. Teach them how to win people for Jesus. Some of our pastors have worked out in detail plans for training and developing such lay workers. Somewhere along the line the pastor will have to step into the picture. It all depends upon the efficient and consecrated work that has been done. Let us not neglect this phase of our mission-work. It is without a doubt the most important phase to win the individual for Jesus. If that phase of the work is done conscientiously, then all will be well. If this phase of the work is neglected, then nothing else will avail. Let us make sure, then, that we win individuals for Jesus. The final step is to make intelligent members of the Lutheran Church out of the newly won converts. To that end a group may be gathered into a class for church-membership training. There is the apostolic injunction concerning those that come to the Lord's Table, 1 Cor.n, 28. We ask our members to accept the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. They ought to know at least Luther's Small Catechism. We expect them to take an active part in the work of Synod. They ought to know something about Synod, its purpose, its work, its organization. How many lessons ought such instruction comprise? It is very difficult to lay down any fixed rules. Remember, the purpose of this instruction (at least normally) is not to make Christians, but to train Christians for church-membership and to develop them into intelligent members of the local congregation. Remember also 414 .IUetne S)efetielftubien that there is a very great difference between students. And per- haps there is an even greater difference between teachers. Some teachers can put over more in half an hour than other teachers can put over in two hours. So, then, every pastor must use his own judgment, bearing in mind the purpose of this class instruction, not to make Christians, but to develop Christians into intelligent mem- bers of our Lutheran Church. The ultimate goal of membership in the visible Church is to use the visible Church as the organization through which the preaching of the Gospel and the extension of the kingdom of God is made possible. In this work every church- member must take a part. It is, then, not enough to make Chris- tians. We must, in addition, make good members of the visible Church out of our prospects. Then only have we done a good and a complete job. Brooklyn, N. Y. ARTHUR BRUNN Slleine ~efetielftnbien 6. ~tf neue ~empel, Slilp. 40-48 '!lie neun SfapiteI ~efefieI~ am @5ef)IuB feine~ lBuef)e~ biIben, 1l1:ic aUgemein liefannt unb anetfannt ift, Me groBadigfte unb au~fiigrHd}f±e mifion be~ WHen 5teftameng. '!liefe SfapiteI i3eigen burd}roeg bie eigen~ adige jffieife unb @5d}Hberung be~ \lSropgeten, !lie fef)on friiger gerbor~ gegolien roorben ift. Wlier freiHdj gegoren fie auef) au ben f d}roierigeren ~bfd}nitten be~ propgetifd}en lBud}e~ unb be~ gansen WHen 5teftameng. Z5eboef) aud} gier fonnen roir au ciner feften WUffaffung unb @idIiirung geIangen, roenn roir ben 5te6t, ben Sfonte6t unb ben \lSaraUelgmu~ namentIief) be~ ~euen 5teftameng ftet~ im Wuge begaIten unb nad} bem lieroagden ®runbfa~ berfagren, baB Me @5ef)rift fief) feThft au~legt. ~ad} bem 9lagmen be~ gani3en lBuef)e~ roill ber \lSropget in biefen ~apiteIn feine ~orer unb Eefer, Me frlier ben merIuft be~ aItteftamentridjen 5tempeI;:; unb frlier ba;:; ~rufgoren be;:; Iegitimen Sfultu;:; betrfrlit roaren, troften mit bem ~inroei;:; barauf, baB ber ,S)@irr iljnen nod} einen gana anbern, bieI groBartigeren 5tempeI liefef)eren roerbe, einen 5tempeI, in bem Me Z5bee be;:; 5tempeI;:; bomg roerbe reanfted rocrben. '!liefer :;tempeI ift ein geiftHef)er 5tempeI, bie ~irdJe be;:; ~euen 5teftameng, roie roir roeiter unten genauer fegen roerben. '!latauf roeift fef)on ber ganae ~onte6t, in bem Mefe SfapiteI ftegen, gin. Z5n biefen Ueinen @5tuMen ift roiebergoIt betont roorben, baB bon Sfap. 33 an, nad}bem Me ~adjridjt bon ber Berftorung Z5erufalem;:; naef) lBabtJIonien gelongt roar, m.21, ber \lSropget nief)t megr beftruftib roie in ben borangegangenen Sfapite!n, fonbern fonftruftib berfagrt. bat er bai$, roa?; er gIeief);am niebergeriff en gat, um Me Z5uben bon ber ®eroiBgdt ber lieborfteljenben .3erftorung bet ~emgen @5tailt unb be?; 5tempeI§ 311 frlierae11gen, nun roieber aUfliaut, unb aroar in bier ljerrlief)eret unb groBadigeret jffieife,