# Der Lutheraner_Frankfurt am Main_September 1950_S69
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Number 9 September 1950 Page 69

+ From Church and World +

Lutheran Free Church in Finland

President A. Aijal Uppala (Wegelius) writes in a
letter about the work of the small Lutheran Free
Church in Finland:

In Finland almost the entire population has belonged
to one church since the Middle Ages. First
the papal church prevailed here, and then a Lutheran
state church. Every citizen belonged to the church.
It is almost the same now. Even worldly people
regard it as a self-evident order of life
that they belong to the state church. It makes no
ecclesiastical difference what these citizens believe or do
not believe. This freedom is also enjoyed by the pastors and
the theological professors.

About 100 years ago the more firmly confessional
Lutheran Christians in the country formed their own
movement. These later joined together into an
association. Other movements led to other
associations.

This kind of religiosity is very agreeable to "flesh
and blood." The state church favors these
associations of the various movements, because they
remain within the indifferent church. The associations, in turn,
favor the state church, because they do not want
to bear full ecclesiastical responsibility for their members.
The church, however, lets everyone believe and live
as he wishes. No one, then, is responsible for anything.
This condition is a decided enemy of all
confessional churchliness. All matters of fellowship
are judged not according to doctrine and confession, but
according to better possibilities for activity.

Only since 1920 did we hear that elsewhere, abroad,
confessional, faithfully Lutheran congregations and synods
exist. This was to us an unspeakably wonderful
discovery. Now we too in Finland learned
the full rights and duties of Christians,
and therefore our free Lutheran congregations arose
beginning in 1923.

But there were only very few who joined us.
From the side of our old association we received the
harshest resistance. Our congregation members live
very scattered — mostly only one family in
their locality. The largest congregation has only 14
families living in the same locality.

Now after the war it became possible for us to build
our first church building as a central house for our
work.

Beginnings of the Lutheran Free Church in Brussels, Belgium

When the new little congregation in Brussels dedicated
its worship hall on March 19 of this year, all
the pastors of our Free Church in Alsace had also
appeared to attend the founding of this congregation.
Pastor Lambert Hellings and a good
part of his congregation from Antwerp also appeared,
so that the audience numbered over 90.
How did it come about that we could begin in Brussels?
Pastor C. H. Hobus, who leads this new congregation,
was during the war a field chaplain
for the Methodists. He became acquainted with Mr.
Van der Geynst, who formerly belonged to the Catholic
church, but became acquainted with Lutheran
doctrine while a prisoner of war, which won his heart.
Mr. Van der Geynst is a master butcher in
Elouge, southern Belgium. But he has made it his
life's task to confess the dear Gospel
wherever he has opportunity. He had all the
periodicals of the Alsatian Free Church sent to him
by President Fritz Kreiss in Paris, including the
French catechism which Pastor Kreiss
translated and published years ago, and now distributes
them everywhere. Thus he also directed Pastor Hobus to
President Kreiss, and God drew him to us.
The noble work of the Lutheran Hour
via Luxembourg also contributed much to
Pastor Hobus becoming acquainted with our doctrine. So
his withdrawal from the Methodist
fellowship soon followed, and now he leads the young
congregation in Brussels. "Lutheraner" (St. Louis, Mo.)

Female Pastors in Sweden

A commission which, under the Swedish bishop, has
studied the admission of women to the church office
has decided, by 7 votes against 4, to
draw women into church service. The majority
of the commission is of the opinion that a woman may
be elected pastor and may even become bishop or
archbishop. However, in a congregation
where she officiates there must also be a male
pastor.
(News Service of the Press Association of the EK in Rh.)

This is against God's Word, cf. 1 Corinthians 14:33–35.
The woman has her important service in the congregation,
but it is of a different kind. What God's Word has
ordained is only changed to the detriment of the church.
Hch. St.

Unrest in Israel

The political events in Palestine, the division
of the land between Jews and Arabs, and the
establishment of the new state of Israel have brought unrest and
uproar into the land. The "Australian Lutheran"
writes:

"The Holy Land is again in the spotlight
of world attention, just as it was 2000 years ago.
The land in which the Prince of Peace was born
is now the place of the most severe tensions.
Crowds of people again populate the roads, but not
in order to go to their hometown "to be
taxed," as in the days of Emperor Augustus, but
because they have been driven out of their cities and houses.
They are refugees. International politics
determined that the land should belong to a new nation,
and thousands of Arabs, who had lived there for
generations, are being expelled without being able to
take anything with them.

Many of these Arabs are embittered against Christianity.
If the United States wants to be a Christian
country and approves of these conditions here, then
we want nothing to do with Christianity, so they
say. The Lutheran church has perhaps done the most
to alleviate this bitterness against Christianity.
Gifts of clothing, food, and medicine were sent
through Lutheran World Relief
to Palestine for the Arab refugees and made a
deep impression on the hearts, at first hostile."

In Jerusalem, the holy city, there are barbed-wire
barricades and street fighting. The city is
supposed to become international, but every party
claims it for itself.

Likewise, inner struggles within the Jewish people
during the building of the new state are reported. The
Minister of Religion is attempting to revive the
former High Council, or the Sanhedrin, which existed
until the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70.
It is thought that this assembly of 70 scholars
might have the capability to carry out the
preparatory work for a state constitution. In the
current parliament of the State of Israel, the so-called
Knesset, there are various currents. Some want to
make the Old Testament law of Moses, or the
Talmud, the basis of state legislation. The
other, liberal, tendency asserts that, for example, the
Old Testament Sabbath commandments are impracticable
in modern life, and they hold an entirely different
worldview standpoint.

Interesting is a note from the "Überblick": "It
is no secret that the government of Israel would
very much welcome the establishment of diplomatic
relations with the Vatican, because such a relationship,
although the Roman Catholic church in Israel does
not belong to the strongest church communities,
would greatly enhance its moral
authority internationally."

At present there are about 50,000 Christians in Israel,
whereas before the partition (1943) there were
about 143,000 in Palestine.

Concerning the future of Israel, various mistaken and
fanciful ideas have been voiced. According to the
statements of the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:9–11 about
the future of his brothers according to the flesh, it is certain
that the doctrine of a general conversion of Israel to
Christ is an empty dream, that the majority of this
people, if they are still waiting for a Messiah at all,
hold the same carnal thoughts as 2,000 years ago,
that God's righteous judgment comes upon this
people because of their hardening, but that
a remnant, according to God's eternal election, is saved
and blessed.
Hch. St.

With the Truth One Gets the Furthest

Arnold Wiehemeyer was a young merchant with
brilliant abilities. But he fell into bad
company and had let himself be carried away into
embezzlement. Two years in prison were the punishment. They
became a blessing to him. The prison
chaplain often visited him in his cell and had
many a serious conversation with him. Upon his release
Wiehemeyer promised the prison chaplain always to
remain with the truth. It did not take long before
he was put to the test as to whether this promise
had been meant seriously or not. For soon
he stood before a Bremen merchant, to apply for
the position of bookkeeper. He had
excellent references to show. Only the two years
were missing. The dreaded question came: "Where were you
during those two years?" The devil prompted him
to say that he had been abroad or had wanted
to prepare himself for another profession.
But God caused him to remember the promise he had given
to the prison chaplain, and he gave the
merchant the short answer: "In prison!" "Then
of course I cannot hire you!"
said the merchant and handed the papers
back to him. But he could not suppress the
question: "But tell me: why did you tell me
that?" "I promised my chaplain in
prison always to tell nothing but the truth!" To which
the merchant replied: "Will you keep your word in
my business just as you do with your
chaplain?" "Yes." He got the position,
made good progress, and later told the prison
chaplain about the incident.

It remains true that truthfulness is one of the
basic virtues of man. One experiences it again and
again: lies have short legs, but the Lord lets things
succeed for the truthful and sincere! Fr. Bell

Bible Reading in the Congregation

A young Lutheran pastor — where this is, plays
no role here — had resolved, with God's
help, to bring "the Book" into the hands and hearts of
his congregation members. First he made
house-to-house visits and spoke with the family
members in a candid and winning manner about
the necessity of proper knowledge of the Bible and
systematic reading of Scripture. Then he won
the various groups and associations for his plan
and also briefly referred to it every Sunday in the
worship service. Thus he achieved that in his small
congregation of 50 families, 40 families took part
and read, within the family circle each day, the
Bible passage indicated by the pastor.

Soon a progress in
knowledge and in Christian life could be felt in the congregation.
Some remarked: "I now know more about the
Bible than ever before." A young man said: "I
can now defend my faith much better and
also cite Bible passages for my assertions."
A mother remarked: "We notice in our
family that God's Word governs more." The pastor
wrote to a fellow minister: "I have found
that a Bible-reading plan helps very much toward
realizing the great goal of our church: to make the
family truly Christian."

(From a Lutheran paper)

Not Taking God's Name in Vain

The mother-in-law of Pastor Oberlin had the
bad habit of frequently taking the
name of God into her mouth in a thoughtless manner. At every
upset an "Oh God!" slipped over her lips.
For a long time Oberlin had been pondering how he might
cure her of this bad habit. One fine
day she was sitting in the garden arbor, and
Oberlin was walking among the cabbage plants. "Mother-in-