Eckhardt's Homiletisches Reallexikon, 1907–1917

AI translation · machine

Feeling. Treatises. A well-grounded, truly Lutheran congregation values growth in knowledge above passing religious emotional excitement. Wis. 97. Certainty should not be built upon feeling. Or. 1904, 68–84. The teaching of the sects, that the certainty of the state of grace consists only in a sweet feeling of grace, is a dangerous enthusiasm. Il. 79, 42–54. Faith and feeling. Luth. 41, 137. Conversations between two Lutherans about Methodism. Luth. 4, 153–154, 164. Faith and feeling. Luth. 4, 189–190. Abbreviation: Brun. — "Gefühlschristentum" [Christianity of Feeling] by Fr. Brunn. Outline. God sometimes works a feeling of grace in us. § 1. Mere intellectual Christianity is not true Christianity. § 2. The Lutheran Church does not seek to smother all religious feeling. § 3. Often God withdraws the feeling of grace from us entirely. § 4. True faith does not build on feeling. § 5. Antithesis. § 6. What is dangerous about working toward feeling at the mourner's bench, as the enthusiasts do? § 7. The consequences of this enthusiasm. § 8. Feeling. God sometimes works a feeling of grace in our heart, lets us feel peace in our heart. Süd. 85, 20–21. Ma. 15, 100. Konk. Syn. 83, 56. These are blessed hours. Then it is said: my heart leaps for joy. Hymn 367, 15. That I taste and feel the peace of God. Hymn 265, 2. 262. 258. Süd. 98, 33–34. Luth. 41, 138. Ges. u. Ev. 2, 184–185. Heb. 6:5: "have tasted the good word." 1 Tim. 1:13: "mercy has been shown me." John 16:22: "your heart shall rejoice." Note a. God calls us to this: "Taste and see how kind the Lord is." We should feel and sense the Spirit in our heart. Note b. Faith is not a dead knowledge. It will also express itself at times in feeling. Note c. Examples: David in his psalms, the shepherds who sought to experience the Christmas story in their hearts. Note d. Such blessed hours often come 1. at the taking of the Lord's Supper, at Bible reading, at prayer, 2. to beginners in Christianity. God often gives them many sweet experiences, which later cease once they are practiced in the faith. These are the kisses of love that the lost, returning son receives. Il. 79, 44. Note e. No true Christianity is conceivable without inward experience of the heart. The kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

AI translation · machine

2. We must therefore never speak as though cold intellectual Christianity were the true Christianity, in which one neither is terrified over sin nor rejoices over peace — a faith of the head and the mouth, dead orthodoxy. Or. 1904, 92. Note a. Many people never experience anything of Christianity in their hearts. They go to church, to the Lord's Supper, hear the Gospel, and remain cold as ice. Note b. Whoever never tastes God's grace should well examine whether he stands in the faith at all. The dead feel nothing. We do well to make plain to such unfeeling, cold people the picture of their unhappy state. Note c. Mere intellectual Christianity is not in accordance with the Word of God. God often appeals in Scripture to the feelings of men. Note d. Behind intellectual Christianity, in which the intellect asserts itself unduly, evil is often hidden — for example, greed ("What is the point of this waste?"), resentment against God's Word, mastering the Word with reason. Note e. When one preaches against feeling, one should be careful not to give aid to dead lip-Christianity.

AI translation · machine

3. The Lutheran Church has therefore never sought to smother all religious feeling, but rather always seeks to stir it up. This is shown a. already by the arrangement of the house of God, b. by the liturgy and order of worship, c. by the use of music, d. by our hymns, e. by preaching. The sermon should not be for the intellect alone but should also work upon the heart. Although a preacher does not want to win friends for the Lord through eloquence or emotional excitement, he will nevertheless often appeal to the heart. Note a. It is also not wrong to describe such blessed hours and experiences in the right way, so that in others too the longing arises: If only I might experience that as well! Note b. Of course the Lutheran Church places doctrine and growth in doctrine foremost. Here lies the chief weight. Through this true benefit is achieved — doctrinal sermons, doctrinal discussions, confirmation instruction, catechesis, doctrinal articles in books and writings. Even our hymns contain predominantly doctrine. 1. Often God withdraws the feeling of grace from us entirely, hides his face. Hours of temptation and tribulation. David: "I am weary with my groaning." Paul: "O wretched man that I am," Rom. 7:24. Job 3:24–26. 6:4: "The arrows of the Almighty are within me." 7:1: "Is there not an appointed time for man on earth?" 7:21: "Why do you not pardon my transgression?" 1 John 3:20: "if our heart condemns us." 2 Cor. 7:5: "without were fightings, within were fears." Note a. God does not treat all people alike with regard to the feeling of grace. Some he lets feel grace more often, others more rarely. Note b. God has often given people promises and let them feel the opposite. Note c. Why does God often withdraw from us the feeling of his grace? He wants to lead us to the Word and exercise us in bare obedience of faith. Precisely when we do not feel God's grace, we strip off all useless baggage, all sinful additions that hinder and burden faith, and the Word comes properly into its own. Note d. Feeling is not a necessary mark of the state of grace that, like works, must always be joined with faith. It can be entirely absent at times. One can stand in grace without feeling it. The Canaanite woman. Sieck 126. Note e. Even when feeling vanishes, peace still remains in the heart. A tree is still a tree even in winter, when it shows no leaves or blossoms. On the surface of the sea the waves may rise high, while down on the bottom everything is entirely still and calm. Note f. Feeling is not necessary for salvation. "He who believes and is baptized will be saved." Note g. Therefore one should also, for example in a confession address, not press for feelings that one supposedly must have.

AI translation · machine

5. True faith does not build on feeling but holds solely to the word of promise. The royal official. John 4:50: "The man believed the word." The Canaanite woman. "Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Hymn 234:10. 237:12. Testimonies from Luther: Luth. 41, 137–138. 4, 189–190. N. W. 79, 48. Il. 79, 47–49. Jo. 85, 56. Konk. Syn. 83, 56–57. Wis. 97, 27–28. Jo. 80, 78. Süd. 83, 47. Notes: 1. Faith requires a divine promise. 2. Whoever grounds himself on the Word has a firm foundation. 3. If our feeling agrees with the Word, we shall rejoice; if it does not agree, the Word still remains to us. 4. Whether the testimony of the Spirit is present should be judged not by feeling but by the Word. 5. Only in this way does the Christian become certain of his state of grace.

AI translation · machine

6. This is especially to be held fast a. at the going to the Lord's Supper. Not our feeling, but the Word should decide whether we are worthy, b. in the hour of temptation, c. in the hour of death, when it is very often all over with sweet feeling. But Hymn 234:9: "I feel nothing, yet it is well with me."

AI translation · machine

7. On the other hand, however much a Christian may taste and feel the gracious word of God in the Gospel, so that all feeling of sin were gone, he nevertheless remains mindful, according to the word of the Law, that he is a poor sinner who must seek the ground of his state of grace not in himself but outside himself.

AI translation · machine

8. Therefore it is wrong when one grounds one's faith on feeling and wants to measure by inner experiences whether one has faith and forgiveness. 6. Antithesis. Enthusiasts ground their faith not on the Word but on feeling. Walth. Ges. u. Ev. 1, 69. 72. 2, 118. To this belong: a. Methodists, Luth. 4, 164. b. Pietists, N. 73, 40. L. W. 53, 437–438. c. The modern Lutheran theologians, who no longer let the written Word be the foundation but put in its place the Christian self-consciousness, Christian experience. Note a. The enthusiast feels his pulse every day, to see whether he has the necessary feverish heat. Note b. That many enthusiasts do not ground their faith on the Word comes from their doctrine of election by grace, of God's secret, hidden counsel. Note c. We too lie more or less sick in the same hospital as the enthusiasts. The human heart gladly wants to feel and sense. As in natural things, so it should also be in spiritual things. Our reason goes no further than it feels. Luth. 2, 52. 7. What is dangerous about it when one bases one's faith on feeling and therefore, like the enthusiasts, works toward feeling in such a way that on the one hand one seeks at the mourner's bench a truly palpable pain of repentance, a struggle of repentance, and on the other hand seeks to attain a sweet, blessed feeling of grace? a. With the enthusiasts, feeling as a rule does not come from the Word of God but from another source; it lies in the natural realm, is a physical effect, mostly produced through nervous stimulation. Cheerful music, an enthusiastic, emotional speech, external things can greatly influence one's mood. Note a. Whether emotional excitements, for example among heathens, Indians, Jesuits, etc., are sometimes also worked by the devil? Note b. Through religious emotional excitements that do not come from the Word, and are not kept in check by the Word, no one comes to faith and no one is preserved in faith. This is seen among heathens and Indians. Faith comes through the Word alone. b. In this one so easily entirely misjudges the nature of faith and falsifies the concept of faith. Faith is not feeling but a certain confidence. Heb. 11:1. True faith believes without feeling, without seeing. John 20:29: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." Thomas. Abraham. Rom. 4:18: "believed in hope against hope." Note a. If the religious feeling aroused at the mourner's bench is spurious, mere straw, then one holds something to be faith which is nothing but delusion. Faith is no imagination, no delusion, no fixed idea that one puts into one's own head. In the doings of the enthusiasts, therefore, lies a great danger for the inexperienced. Il. 79. Note b. But even if the feeling aroused at the mourner's bench is genuine gold, if some word of God has touched the heart, one is still in the greatest danger of confusing faith and feeling, faith and the fruit of faith. One takes for faith itself what, at best, is only the fruit and consequence of faith, a working of grace. Or. 1904, 75. W. 59, 60. Syn. 72, 49. Note c. Feeling does not precede grace but follows it. First believe, then see — when and where the Lord grants it. Note d. But even where one does indeed distinguish between faith and feeling, one makes feeling a necessary mark of faith. Whoever does not have it does not count as converted. Christians under spiritual assault are regarded as non-Christians. Hence too the distinction between awakening and conversion. See "Conversion" 320, §13. Note e. To be consistent, the enthusiasts ought also to conclude on the other side: whoever does not yet feel the wrath of God in his heart is also not under wrath. Note f. Because feeling among the sects is a necessary mark of faith, they urge those who do not have this feeling to strive for it and not rest until they have obtained it. Thereby the certainty of the state of grace is overthrown. Feeling is a foundation of sand, a foundation that collapses. For 1. feeling can deceive. The blessed mood of the heart is perhaps nothing but imagination. Into the feelings that a person has at the beginning of his conversion there mixes much that is still obscure and later proves spurious. 2. How quickly the sweet feeling is often gone! Like a light that has been blown out. With it the certainty of the state of grace also vanishes. Therefore people who build on their feeling can get no firm heart; in good times they are secure, in bad times despondent. Deceived people. Whoever relies on his own heart is a fool. Note a. Certainty never comes from feeling but from the promise. If I have offended someone, what matters is not what I feel but what he feels, and he must tell me that. Note b. We do not fight against feeling, but against making it the ground of certainty. d. The doctrine of justification, the sola gratia, is falsified. Justification is made dependent on a certain measure of contrition and feeling. N. W. 79. Note a. In this they mix up justification and sanctification. It is not enough for them to know from the promises that they have a gracious God. Note b. In the doctrine of justification, faith must be set against feeling in exactly the same way as against works. Our righteousness lies entirely outside ourselves. Note c. They confuse Law and Gospel. e. At the same time a false source of knowledge (principium) is set up. See page 641. Note a. The enthusiasts distinguish between the working of the Spirit through the Word and a direct working upon the heart. They tear the feeling of grace loose from the Word and declare it to be a direct working of the Spirit. Note b. One cannot make religious feeling, however refined it may sometimes be, the rule and standard of faith. f. People who absolutely insist on feeling want to draw into this life something of the manner that is intended for eternal life. The seeing, tasting, sensing is meant to take place only in that life to come. 8. The consequences of this enthusiasm are: a. Despondency and despair when feeling vanishes, often complete coldness and apostasy. "Because you do not have such feelings, you are lost." b. Fleshly security, when the feeling of grace remains with them. They consider themselves a favored child of God. The need for thorough repentance and self-examination recedes. They also deal lightly with this or that sin, so long as their inner peace is not disturbed. c. Hypocrisy. How often will someone who does not have such feelings feign them, only so as not to appear a non-Christian! d. Righteousness by works. As the papists want to earn grace, so enthusiasts and Pietists do in their hearts. e. Pride, refined, spiritual pride. e. Deification of men. The word of their masters, the revivalists, who exercise an excessive, unwarranted influence, counts more with them than God's Word. f. Self-deification. When asked why they stand in grace with God, they will likely answer: because I am converted, because I have experienced it. g. Neglect of doctrine. One no longer troubles oneself with deeper knowledge of sins and of God's Word. When this has gone on for a while, one feels like a parched desert. Socials and suppers take the place of doctrine. Note. To the man of feeling, only what corresponds to feeling seems important — emotional devotional books, free prayers of the heart. If only the pastor speaks in an emotional way. Whether the Lord's Supper is rightly administered is not asked about much. h. Perversion of the doctrine of the sacraments. Not what is given to us in the sacrament, but what goes on in their hearts meanwhile, is the main thing: edification, that is, a moving, gripping communion service. With baptism and absolution they no longer know what to do. Note. If one has no blessed feeling at the Lord's Supper, one considers the going to the Supper wasted. i. Insensibility. In the end one becomes numb and unfeeling toward everything spiritual. In the end, clear and plain passages that convict them of this or that sin often do not cut into their hearts at all; they no longer feel the sting. k. Self-deception. 1. They often deceive themselves about the state of their souls. They may dissolve in tears over their sin and yet have no proper notion of what sin actually is. If one confronts them with specific sins, then they have committed no sin. They leap for joy that they have the Holy Spirit, and yet can hardly answer a single question about the office of the Spirit. 2. They fashion for themselves a false Christ. Man is not to seek his salvation in himself or in what is his own. They place their trust in the Christ within us, instead of in the Christ in his Word. They make feeling into the Savior. Objections: 1. I know Methodists who are decided children of God. Who would deny that? But these are not the natural fruits of Methodism. The errant paths also do not always appear so strongly. Even where a Christianity of feeling prevails, there are simple souls who learn to hold to the promise. 2. The Spirit bears witness to our spirit. That is true. But this may not be misused to unsettle in their faith souls thirsting for salvation who have not yet decisively felt this testimony. 3. Then you Lutherans make Christians into unfeeling people, reject all emotion in the Christian life. — No. 4. Little of spiritual life is to be perceived among us. Dead Lutheranism. — In part this reproach is indeed true. But that is not the fault of our doctrine and of the Word. Homiletics. Quasimodogeniti [Sunday]. — Gospel. — Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. a. That this is the right faith. b. How blessed those are who have it. — Ma. 15, 98. Reminiscere. — Gospel. — The folly of not believing that you are in grace unless you feel it. a. Because you can be in grace, though you do not feel it. b. Because true faith relies on the word alone, which promises God's grace. — Sieck 126.