# Der Lutheraner_Frankfurt am Main_Januar 1950_S2
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Page 2                              January 1950                              Number 1

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outwardly indeed only "a little strength," and yet God has also set great and important tasks before our churches for the year that lies ahead.

Does our task now consist in no longer occupying ourselves so much with questions of Christian doctrine and confession, but rather in concerning ourselves more with the "Christian solution" to the pressing political and social questions of the present? That is the impetuous demand of many church newspapers, of the speeches of leading figures in the large churches, and of the ever more numerous church congresses. We cannot follow this; indeed, we reject such slogans and aims as tasks of the church. We might rightly fare as did the participants of the Katholikentag in Bochum, who passed political resolutions on the workers' right of codetermination and had to be told, from the highest level of government (Vice-Chancellor Blücher in Essen), that these demands were unworkable, and that it would be a disparagement of the German worker to put him off with empty phrases. Such proposals would doubtless lead to anarchy in the workplace.

The churches have no right to reach into another's office and to claim authority in matters that do not belong to their task. God's Word says of this that the church of Christ and believers are to pray for the authorities (1 Timothy 2:2) and to seek the welfare of the city (Jeremiah 29:7). As members of their people, they are to serve their country faithfully and conscientiously by taking part in elections, and, when called to particular offices, to fulfill their duty each in his station with heartfelt and unselfish love toward his neighbor, whether as employer or worker, as official or employee. The church is not to press itself into the responsibility of the authorities; but it is to proclaim freely and publicly what God, in his holy and inviolable Law, has determined once for all as the foundation of his order of creation and of our order of life. In view of this, our free churches intend, with God's help, to act according to the clear principles of Scripture. Above all, we want earnestly to ask God to fill the hearts of statesmen with wisdom and the fear of God.

Beside this, we also want especially to remember the great physical hardship of our people. In many of our congregations a special relief effort has begun for our fellow believers in need in the Eastern Zone. We all want to help by sending packages or by monetary gifts. Our Christians in West Germany, who have themselves received much help, should also remember the word of the Lord Jesus: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35.

When we now turn to our particular churchly tasks, then here the work of union within the Lutheran free churches

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of Germany, whose most recent success has been reported in more detail elsewhere in our paper, is of great significance. A far-reaching cooperation has begun in important churchly works within the free churches, thus in the field of the training of ministers of the Word at the newly founded Lutheran Theological Seminary in Oberursel and the pro-seminary in Groß-Osingen. Likewise a close connection has been established between the churches in youth work (Tannenberg Youth Castle), in the general relief effort for the support of fellow believers in need, in the church newspaper "Der Lutheraner," in the "College for Lutheran Literature," in the creation of a new hymnal, and the like.

These joint works require the faithful intercession and the vigorous support of our Christians and must be built up more and more, so that they may rightly serve the cause of the Lutheran church.

All churchly works serve, after all, only one ultimate purpose: to spread the saving Gospel and to proclaim it to the lost world. Thus the coming year demands of us an intensified mission work.

The spiritual need is immense. Bitterness and disappointment have hardened hearts. The revival movement hoped for at first after the war has again ebbed away, once the initial shock of the collapse had been overcome. Countless Lutheran refugees from the East have not yet found a proper churchly home. They seek free Lutheran congregations that are real congregations, as they were accustomed to in their eastern homeland. In actual big-city mission work our free churches have so far made only very timid attempts. Our brethren abroad are far ahead of us in this. So may God fill us in the new year with holy zeal for the rescue and strengthening of these souls, with great love for the gathering and building up of our congregations. May he give us pastors, church elders, men's and women's societies, youth groups, who think not only of how they themselves may live out their faith, but who go out to call the lonely and the seeking, the afflicted and the unbelieving, and to compel them to come in, "that my house may be filled" (Luke 14:23).

But we will become true mission churches only when we ourselves are fully conscious of our faith, our confession, and our churchly position. Nothing hinders the strength and success of churchly work more than uncertainty in a clear, Scriptural position in doctrine and church life. The free churches have at times been reproached as narrow-minded sectarian churches. It is true: unconditional faithfulness to the confession of the fathers, and the refusal of church fellowship without complete agreement in the pure doctrine, has made us in part isolated. We rejoice

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therefore that in the past two years we were able to take part in the meeting of American and German theologians and in the deeply searching theological discussions, and it is our heartfelt wish that they may be continued. Among many there is a new seeking and searching to be observed in God's Word, the writings of Luther, and the testimonies of the Lutheran church. How necessary thorough discussions are in this regard is shown, for example, by No. 18 of the "Evang.-Lutherische Kirchenzeitung" [Evangelical Lutheran Church Newspaper], where well-known Lutheran theologians write on "Christocentric Scriptural Criticism" and "Revelation and Scripture" and, with great earnestness, endeavor toward a right understanding of the Bible as the Word of God, yet arrive at the result that the old Lutheran doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture (rightly understood as full or verbal inspiration) can no longer be maintained today, and that the Bible in fact contains contradictions and errors.

Such a position contradicts the clear testimony of Christ and the apostles, as well as the confession of our church. A church union without unanimity in confession, even on these questions, would be a harm to the church and a union that can bring no blessing. The Lutheran free churches are firmly convinced that they serve Lutheranism in Germany best by resisting the temptation of the hour to strive for a union without unity; but they are heartily willing, in the fear of the Lord and in a brotherly spirit, to wrestle together with others for the right understanding of the Word of God and for the truth. May God bless all endeavors and efforts directed toward this goal, and grant our Lutheran free churches, who now wish to fight and work together in fellowship of faith and church, much strength and grace and his Holy Spirit for the new year!

Die Schriftleitung

The Church, Guardian of the Pure Doctrine in Law and Gospel.

An olive tree can stand, endure, and bear fruit for up to two hundred years, and is a beautiful image of the church. For oil signifies the bodily nature and kindliness of the Gospel; wine, the doctrine of the Law. But there is such a natural unity and kinship between the vine and the olive tree that when the vine is grafted and set upon an olive tree, it bears both grape and oil. So the church, planted among the people, sounds forth and teaches the Gospel, and needs the doctrine of both, and brings forth fruit from both. Luther.

The two sayings on the first page were drawn by Elisabeth Reuter. We reproduce them with the permission of the publisher Johannes Herrmann, Zwickau/Sa., from the "Biblisches ABC" [Biblical ABC], 24 Bible verses for young people with drawings by Elisabeth Reuter, stitched, DM —.75, and from Series 1 of the "Luther Postcards" by Elisabeth Reuter (8 postcards with sayings of Luther, DM —.70). Both may be obtained through the Lutheraner-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main.