LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 8

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8 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

poses for conventions of the Synod, even as it was the
major reason for the first convention of the early New
Testament church. We are following its example, re-
corded in the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles,
when we come together “to consider this matter.”

The only day more welcome than the first day of
this convention is the coming of God’s own Day of
Judgment. Then we will have the answers to all our
questions. When the trumpet of God awakens those
who sleep, then with those who remain we will all be
joined in the perfect company of those who are gath-
ered about the Lamb. All our troubles will have van-
ished. Now already our salvation is nearer than the
day we came to faith. Because Christ’s victory is our
victory, we can confidently lift up our heads and re-
joice, for our redemption is drawing near.

This setting of the last time is the setting in which
the church has been at work ever since our Lord re-
turned to His Father and our Father. This is what the
word “eschatology” means. This is why we must at all
times and in all places believe, think, and act as if our
Lord will soon return. It is for this reason that I have
chosen 2 Peter 3:9 as a signpost for my presidential
address today.

Whatever has happened in the past or will happen
in the future, whatever has happened since the last con-
vention or may happen before the next one, it all takes
on a different meaning in view of what happens when
Christ returns. For us to get a proper perspective,
I invite you to lift your eyes and hearts in childlike trust
to the words of 2 Peter 3:9, where God gives us the
assurance that

Jesus Will Certainly Keep His Promise to Come for Us

These words of St. Peter were God’s Word to His
people in the early church. These words were written
against false teachers and false prophets. Scoffers were
spreading rumors and doubts. They were saying in
effect: “Time is passing by, Peter. You have been
preaching and acting as if Christ might come back any
time. Months have now become years, and years have
stretched into decades, and still your Jesus has not come
back. Can you still trust Him in view of all this? If He
doesn’t keep this promise, can you believe anything He
said? Isn’t all this a cruel hoax for which you are sac-
rificing so much and getting so little in return?”

These questions are as contemporary as this day in
June 1965. When the children of this world are willing
to throw everything overboard for the thrill of daring
to live dangerously, when the children of the church
are making shipwreck of their faith or risking Christ
by convenient compromise, we stand in the predicament
of Peter. What proof can we offer? What do we deal
with but promises, or just plain words?

It is at this point that St. Peter reminds us: “The
Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men
count slackness.” We are not dealing only with words.
We are dealing with God’s words. The God who speaks
to us has backed up His words by action. The God who

speaks and who promises to return is the same God
whose word brought creation into being: “By the word
of God the heavens were of old.”

This is the same God who threatens judgment to sin-
ners, St. Peter says. When God’s man rebelled in sin,
when the sons of God chased after the daughters of men
in godlessness, then God wiped out this abomination
by overflowing the world with water. All perished ex-
cept Noah’s family of eight.

This same God still speaks sternly and harshly
against sin in our time. Our generation has done much
to invite God’s judgment; and God has spoken to us in
judgment. Our generation has felt the scourge of two
world wars and endless strife between. Our world
knows the pain of hunger, the plight of poverty, the
despair of economic depression, and the terror that
comes when men become like beasts.

God’s people are tempted to ask: Why doesn’t God
carry out the threat He issued when He said that He
was keeping the earth in store “reserved unto fire
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly
men”? Why doesn’t Christ return to rescue us from
the present evil world as He promised to do?

The answer is not that God is slack in His promises
in the way that men count slackness. The answer lies
elsewhere. God Himself gives the reason for His delay.
God is willing to suffer long; God is patient. God is
merciful because in love He wants all men to be rescued
and none to perish. God designed hell only for Satan
and his angels. God wants His children to be in His
presence in heaven. In His own time He sent His Son
to overcome Satan’s tyranny and to lead His children
back. The father heart of God yearns for the prodigal
sons to return.

This is why we are here. We have come here to be
united by Jesus Christ. By His perfect sacrifice the veil
is torn, and we sinners are reunited with God. Tonight
He will gather His 20th-century disciples about His table
even as He did His first disciples. Like them we are
feeble and fumbling, quarrelsome and self-seeking. In
His presence, and by the same love wherewith He for-
gives, we are reunited with one another. His voice will
be heard each day at this convention asking us to sur-
render our wills to His will, and we will be joined in
our common obedience of faith.

This is why we are here. He wants no one to perish.
He wants the power of His grace to touch and heal
every hurt, to strengthen every burden bearer. And we
are His instruments, His ambassadors. Though we all
live among strangers and foreigners, we are bound in
our common privilege of proclaiming the Gospel to the
poor, to heal the broken heart, to preach deliverance
to the captives. We have come together to plan our two-
year strategy for outreach and to place our forces. We
are here to set our feet in the footsteps of Him who said
of Himself: “The Son of Man is come to seek and to
save that which was lost,” and: “God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world but that the world
through Him might be saved.”

How much time do we have? Peter reminds us that