# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S942
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS 359

A BREAD KING? ©

In every age there have been those who failed to

grasp the true spiritual nature of the Savior’s Gospel .

Kingdom. Thus, for instance, we read that immediately
after He had fed the five thousand, there were some
who would have made Him their King. Surely, they

reasoned, a ruler who could convert scarcity into plenty, |

poverty into wealth, economic uncertainty into social
security — surely, he would be the ideal head of any gov-
ernment.

Even the disciples of Jesus themselves were not free _

from a purely bread-and-butter conception of the Sav-
ior’s kingdom here on earth; for did they not ask Him
even at so late a date as the day of His ascension: “Lord,
wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom of
Israel?”

Two thousand years have not succeeded in erasin
this fundamental error. To many Christ is still a “brea
king” and nothing more. They look to Him for the solu-
tion of almost every problem ~ except the one which,
above all others, He came to earth to solve: the sin
problem.

They appeal to the Savior for solutions to the prob-

lems of economics, politics, morals, and international re- -

lations; but they refuse to listen to what He has to say
about sin, about forgiveness, and about eternal life in

heaven through faith in His atoning blood. To them the _

Savior is a “social” Savior, His Gospel a “social” Gospel,
and His kingdom a kingdom of mere externals.

Just what Jesus thought of such a. conception of His
kingdom is clearly seen from the following account re-
corded by the Evangelist.

Joun 6:15-27

When Jesus therefore perceived that they would
come and take Him by force, to make Him a king, He
departed again into a mountain, Himself alone. And