# Der Junge Lutheraner_Frankfurt am Main_September 1950_S35
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Number 9

September 1950

Page 35

In Vain?

Below we present an exchange of letters which is not fictional, that is, not invented, but which took place between two young people of our time and was made available to us by a reader of our paper. Only the names of the letter-writers have been changed. We are publishing this correspondence because it touches on thoughts about religion and Christianity that occupy very many young people today, and because it makes clear how great and beautiful, but also how difficult and weighty, is the task set before us as Christians: to give other people the testimony of our faith and to show them the way to Christ. Unfortunately we cannot print the entire correspondence in one issue, but only in several installments, and at the end we will give our own position on the questions raised in it. D. S.

Dear Eberhard!

You gave me the opportunity to exchange thoughts with you sometime about religion and the like. Until now I did not dare to broach with you this subject, which stands at the focal point of my interest. You also know that our parents never agreed on this point, and that we too will probably clash a little over it. The religious outlook of my parents has, of course, largely passed on to me as well, and yet I can find no satisfaction in it. The basic motives of their faith are indeed clear and convincing to me, and satisfy me far more than Christianity does — or rather, than the Christian doctrine preached in the church is able to. Despite all these facts, however, this faith does not give me the support that every person eventually needs. I have now been struggling for about four years for a faith, although I know that this cannot be forced and that reason cannot accomplish anything here. I envy all those people who have such a firm and unshakeable faith and who did not, like me, have to remain restless and unsatisfied. I do not know — perhaps I have approached all religious ceremonies and the like with prejudice, or perhaps it is simply not granted to me to find a true faith. You have known nothing else since childhood but your own faith; nevertheless, I tell myself that every person must struggle through to his own faith; for simply taking over something drilled into one, without ever having fully come to terms with it oneself, could hardly give any person inner satisfaction. Various worthwhile people answer me by saying that there is no such thing as a permanent so-called peace of soul, but that faith must be fought for anew each day. I do not know whether this also corresponds to your views; this conception was indeed intelligible to me, but it gave me quite a different picture from the one I had held until then.

I have now tried, from all sides, to make myself familiar with such thoughts, but honestly — I do not succeed, and I must admit that inwardly I resist too strongly and immediately let my reason play its part again, which at once destroys any small structure I manage to build.

I would now like to ask you whether you have really arrived, through your own thoughts and conclusions, at your strong support in Christianity, or whether you have merely adopted the faith of your parents and your church. I am, of course, not clinging to any unshakeable position, but am glad to be taught better, if it satisfies me and makes sense to me and offers me lasting support. — But I will now close this chapter, for I already notice that it is slowly becoming tedious for you; so please excuse me... Your Hellmut.

Dear Hellmut!

I too am glad to be able to correspond with you sometime about religious matters, and you may be assured that I take your search just as seriously as I know you take my views seriously. Look, there is indeed a so-called natural knowledge of God given to every person by nature, which is written into every person's heart. By this I mean: every person has by nature a conscience, a feeling for what is good and evil, and the knowledge that a higher being exists on whom he himself and the course of the whole world are dependent. That is why, outside of Christianity as well, all religions strive more or less to come closer to this higher being. But this striving remains a perpetual groping. People chase after a blurred image with their own religions, of which they have no proper conception. How many truly serious, educated people, when they speak of their religious position, tell you of the most complicated things they have worked out for themselves. They often struggle a whole lifetime for a faith. Here they take over something that appealed to them from Buddhism, there from Brahmanism, here from Indian yoga teaching, there from pantheism. From all these systems they borrow something in order to fashion a mixture from it, which they assume seems to correspond to their own nature. It is supposed to give them support in gloomy hours. But what guarantee do they have for this? They themselves created this system. And now the "creator" himself needs support. Now, when their faith is supposed to prove itself, when perhaps everything sinks that until then seemed to give them firm support, their "work of art" fails; it collapses together with the "thinker." If they do not then fall victim to atheism, at best they change the inner structure of their edifice of faith, or patch up its façade, only to experience the same disappointments at the next storm. No wonder! For if everyone had to fight his way through to a faith, could create it himself, then there would in the end be as many "faiths" as there are people on earth. Surely that cannot be the true faith! Such people then remain — and even call themselves — "seekers of God" their whole life long.

Their system is usually built on a certain self-interest, which they themselves scarcely ever recognize as such. What does not suit them, they throw overboard, in order to modify their moral principles and their supposed inner support again and again in various ways to fit practical needs. According to this natural knowledge of God, they all want to serve their god, so to speak, with self-chosen works. They seek, in a way, to bring about a reconciliation with God on their own terms for whatever, according to the testimony of their conscience, must be regarded as "not right" — in case after death a "judgment" should after all follow. — They rejoice every time some supposed good deed succeeds, and imagine that now the deity must surely be reconciled again. And from the sum of their "good works" they then derive an earned reward for this life and for the next. But does a person, according to this, ever know whether these good works are also sufficient? Whoever takes his self-examination seriously will find that all our doing and not-doing always remains, indeed must remain, fragmentary. All our good deeds can never be an object of compensation, but are simply our duty and obligation. So here too there results a collapse, "an eternal seeking," a "never-attaining." All one's own seeking and building can and will always only lead to the person declaring himself bankrupt along the whole line. Only when a person has broken down before himself, has despaired of himself and his own power to redeem himself, when his surroundings, too, no longer offer him any support and everything has been taken from him — only then has the moment come when he understands God's condescension in Christ. That is the mystery of the cross of Christ. And the way to him leads through his word, as we find it in the New Testament.

Now Christianity differs from all other religions in the world in this: that it bestows earthly inner contentment and "eternal life" as a gift, out of God's overabundant grace and mercy, upon all those who recognize their human inadequacy and weakness — yes, let us calmly say sinfulness — in thoughts, words, and deeds, and who take refuge in him who has made full atonement on the cross for the sins of all mankind. This is the Messiah already promised in the Old Testament, whom God sent into the world to save sinners, and who was despised by the Jews and delivered up to death on the cross. The disciples of this Jesus of Nazareth, twelve simple people who did not let themselves be led astray from what they had heard and seen, were his first faithful witnesses. Without any mass propaganda they prevailed and sealed their faithfulness to him with their blood. And how many martyrs Christianity can point to, especially in the first centuries of the Christian era! They had all still been ear-witnesses of the apostles and preferred to give up their lives rather than depart from the teaching of their Lord and Master.

This teaching, which is now about 2000 years old, has existed uninterruptedly since the beginning of the world. And of it Jesus himself says that the gates of hell will not overpower it. What has not collapsed since then! But Christ the Lord triumphs over the whole world as eternal victor. To believe in Jesus — that is firm support and final comfort in life and in death. Your Eberhard.

(To be continued)

[Image: Biblical questions for youth gatherings]

Which of the three answers is correct?

Who is meant by the other two answers?

1) Salem

Son of David and Bathsheba; Melchizedek was king there; there John the Baptist baptized.

2) Abishag

The widow of Nabal; a beautiful girl; a son of Zeruiah.

3) Antipatris

A martyr; a city in Syria; a proven Christian.

4) Lebbaeus

A disciple of Jesus; a friend of Jesus; Rebekah's brother.

5) Canaan

A grandson of Noah; site of a wedding; residence of the royal official.

6) Goath

A giant; a place near Jerusalem; a devilish enemy of Christians.

7) Hannah

A high priest; a prophetess; a son of Cain.

8) Benaiah

King of Syria; son of Jacob; commander of David's army.

9) Jabesh

Son of Lamech; city in Gilead; a ford through which Jacob passed.

10) Ashkelon

A Phoenician idol; a city in Syria; a heathen kingdom.

11) Amasa

Commander of Jehoshaphat; king of Judah; commander of Absalom.

12) Tychicus

In this city Hiram was king; was sent to Ephesus; in his school Paul spoke.

Give the reference:

1) Genesis 14:18; 2 Samuel 12:24; John 3:23.
2) 1 Samuel 25:39; 1 Samuel 26:6; 1 Kings 1:3.
3) Acts 23:31; Romans 16:10; Revelation 2:13.
4) Genesis 24:29; Matthew 10:3; John 11:11.
5) Genesis 9:18; John 2:1; John 4:47.
6) 1 Samuel 17:4; Jeremiah 31:39; Revelation 20:7-8.
7) Genesis 4:17; Luke 2:36; Luke 3:2.
8) Genesis 35:18; 1 Kings 15:18; 2 Samuel 8:18.
9) Genesis 4:20; Genesis 32:22; Judges 21:10.
10) 1 Samuel 12:10; Judges 14:19; Jeremiah 51:27.
11) 2 Samuel 17:25; 2 Kings 12:22; 2 Chronicles 17:16.
12) 2 Samuel 5:11; Acts 19:9; 2 Timothy 4:12.

(Schmeckendecher)