Collection › LCMS Convention Proceedings (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1959 · 44th Convention, San Francisco › Page 46

LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1959, Page 46

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

46 DOCTRINAL ESSAY

in the fear of God, and if those who pursue it will at all times
place themselves under the Word of God, then God will use the
results of these efforts for the benefit of His church. But those
of us charged by our church to communicate divine doctrine on
the elementary level or secondary level, in our colleges, seminaries,
and the university, need always to bear in mind what an eminent
Lutheran theologian and professor at Wittenberg, Caspar Loescher,
wrote ’way back in 1689 (he was the father of the celebrated and
stalwart Lutheran theologian Dr. Valentin Ernst Loescher):
Truly, to convert a single soul to God, is a far nobler work
than to create ten thousand masters, several thousand licen-

tiates, or a thousand profoundly educated doctors, whom the
most thorough education and learnedness is not able to save.

(Dates of Caspar Loescher: 1636-1718. See Joecher’s Gelehrten-
Lexikon under “Caspar Loescher.”’)

We indeed need to teach the divine doctrine most thoroughly
and to that end employ on all levels the best tools and methods
available in our day. But we may do this only with that ultimate
goal in view that our pupils, students, and all members of our
parishes, great and small, might grow in the knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ and of His Word, become strengthened in their
faith, their love, and their hope, and that they, too, acquire that
Christian assurance and joyous conviction which only the Holy
Spirit can create through the Word of Scripture. To this assurance
John in his First Epistle gives expression in the last three of his
many “we know.” These three “we know” read:

We know that anyone born of God does not sin [that is, does

not sin willfully], but He [Jesus] who was born of God keeps
him, and the evil one does not touch him.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the
power of the evil one [that is, the devil. What a challenge to
proclaim the Gospel in all the world!].

We know that the Son of God has come and has given us

understanding to know Him who is true; and we are in Him

who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God

and eternal life. (1 John 5:18-20)

With John’s assurance of triumph and victory in our hearts
and on our lips may we continue to carry on the great work en-
trusted by God to our Synod and to each of us.

1 — full-t
2 — part-

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