LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 37

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DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS 37

your combination in scholarship that is truly Christian,
grubbing for the golden nuggets of wisdom, putting
them into my hand through research work and at the
same time holding high the torch: “The Lord hath
spoken.” The church is in need of such scholarship.

Peter said it. In the very last verse of his Second
Epistle he does not only say to the church, “Grow in
grace,” but he adds: “Grow in the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ.” This knowledge, this gnosis, in-
volves everything that God has revealed to man through
His tremendous work in nature, everything that He has
revealed through the workings of the mind of man,
and everything that He has revealed through His Word.
Every area is a legitimate field of operation for the
Christian scholar. But sometimes I have to pray a
special prayer when I look at some of the productions
of the scholar. “Please, God, don’t let him get lost!”

A Problem in Scholarship

I say that with special emphasis as I think of some
of the modern problems in Bible research work. Let’s
take an example. I look at the first 11 chapters of
Genesis, and I think I know what they say. Then
someone tells me, “That isn’t what they say! These
11 chapters are generic. They are not specific.” I look
at them again, take my red pencil, and underline every
proper noun in those 11 chapters. In my Bible I have
148 red marks. Here they are. Easy to remember. Two
mountains, four rivers, eight countries or areas, 20
cities, 112 individuals, plus the name of the Cherubim
and the name of God. Add them up and you have
148 proper nouns.

Now I ask myself, What’s so generic about Mount
Ararat? Is it a mountain or is it not? Is it merely
a symbol, a picture? What about the four rivers, Pison,
Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates? What’s so generic
about the river Euphrates? Is it a river or is it not?
Is it a symbol, or is it an actual watercourse where
you can get your feet wet? What’s generic about
Ethiopia? What’s generic about Assyria? What’s
generic about the city of Nineveh?

The latter has always fascinated me. Three cities
are mentioned in Genesis 10:12, Nineveh and Calah,
and, the Bible says, in between those two there is
another city by the name of Resen, R-e-s-e-n. Now,
when you have a specific geographical designation like
this, I have a right to ask, “Can this be allegorical
language, or is the writer pointing out certain specific
places that were in existence?”

Then I come to the 112 names of individuals. What’s
generic about Abel? Was a generation slaughtered
or one man? Hebrews 11 says: “He offered a more
excellent sacrifice . . . and by it he being dead yet
speaketh,” that is, this man’s blood is still crying from
the ground. What’s generic about Enoch? Was he, as
the Letter to the Hebrews says, translated, taken bodily
to heaven, “that he should not see death”? Was it
a whole generation that went to heaven in this manner?
What’s generic about these names in Genesis? We look

at them again and compare them with the Letter to
the Hebrews, and we say, “This is specific. This is
aman. These are people. These things happened to
these people.”

And so I sit down with the scholar, and I say to
him, “Let’s look at it again. I don’t say that I’m the
only one who can be right. I need help to understand
words. Don’t mislead me!” He and I need God’s en-
lightenment, for both of us are in the position of shep-
herds. Together we search the Scriptures so that God’s
people may be fed. He trusts me and I trust him.
Together we pray the prayer of David in Psalm 119.
David had written many of the psalms, but what he
had written he himself had to study. And what does
he ask? “O Lord, open Thou mine eyes that I may
behold wondrous things out of Thy law” (Ps. 119:18).
The whole church should join in this prayer for all
its servants, its pastors, its teachers, its scholars: “O
Lord, open their eyes as Thou dost open our eyes, that
together we may behold wondrous things out of Thy
law.” Only God can help the church stay close to the
truth. Only God can preserve for us true Christian
scholarship.

Strengthen the Educational Agencies

If now our Synod is deeply concerned about its
scholarship, it is equally concerned about the educa-
tional agencies of its congregations. These are the
nurseries in which the little plants in God’s kingdom
are nurtured. The church ever looks to the next gen-
eration to carry on the work of the King. The work-
men of tomorrow will be what we have taught them
today. We ask God to give us the courage to strengthen
every tool that He has placed into our hands for the
teaching of the church of tomorrow.

There is first of all the Lutheran parochial school.
We ask God to give us ever more parochial schools and
to help us strengthen those already in existence. In
our ministry of almost four decades we have found
nothing comparable to strengthen the local congrega-
tion. Strong schools will make for strong churches.
A school in which Christ rules through His Word, that’s
the place for our children. We need more Christian
teachers, men and women, standing by our side, sharing
our ministry of the Word with us, leading the lambs
ever closer to Jesus Christ, and helping us keep them
there. To start a school takes hard work. To keep a
school takes harder work. To have a school produce
a product of finest quality, young men and women
who are a credit to Christ, takes supreme effort on
the part of all, parents, teachers, and pastors. May
this convention spare nothing to undergird our precious
school system.

We ask God to help us strengthen our part-time
agencies. For some of us they are the only tools by
which to reach the new generation. We'll have to take a
second good look at every agency God gave us. If there
is change needed, may God give us the courage to
change what needs changing. If my Sunday school is
not paying off, I ask God to put into my hand a differ-