LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1971, Page 243

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT 243

testimony of the Lord, making wise the simple; the com-
mandments of the Lord, rejoicing the heart and enlightening
the eyes. (2 Pet.1; Ps.19.) Sad to say, there is hardly
a Christian doctrine in our day which has sunk into greater
oblivion than this doctrine or has been so decisively elimi-
nated as a piece of former narrow-mindedness. The whole
present theological intelligentsia is searching the Scriptures
eagerly, holding not only that there are many passages which
need further clarification (a fact which we do not deny),
but also that much material for important new dogmas will
be discovered.

Luther, who wrote many a precious word against this
kind of Bible-study, expressed himself in the following man-
ner in his exposition of Psalm 37: “But if any one of them
attacks you and says, ‘You must have the exegesis of the
fathers; the Bible is obscure,’ you must answer, ‘This is not
true.’ No book on earth is so clear as the Holy Scriptures.
It excels every other book just as the sun excels every other
light. They employ the foregoing language because they
wish to lead us away from Scripture and set themselves over
us as our masters, so that we may believe their fantastic
dreams. It is a shocking disgrace, blasphemy against the
Holy Scriptures and all Christendom, to say that Holy Scrip-
ture is obscure and not clear enough to enable every one
to understand it and then teach and prove what he believes.
Take careful note of this fact: Would it not be a great shame
for you or me to be called a Christian and at the same time
not know what we believe? But if I know what I believe,
I know what is in Scripture; for it contains nothing else than
Christ and the Christian faith. Therefore, when the Christian
hears Scripture, it is so clear and plain to him that he says
without any help from the commentaries of all the fathers
and teachers: ‘That is right; that is what I also believe”...
It is indeed true that some passages of Scripture are obscure,
but in them the same truth must be sought which is found
in clear, unmistakable passages. And then heretics arise
who interpret obscure passages according to their own bias
and on the basis of their interpretation contend against the
clear passages and foundation of faith. So the fathers strove
against them with the clear passages, shed light on those that
are obscure, and proved that the obscure said nothing more
than that which is expressed in the clear. This is the correct
method of Bible-study.... Be assured, without doubt there
is nothing brighter than the sun, which is Scripture; but
if a cloud passes in front of the sun, the very same sun is
behind it. Likewise, if there is an obscure passage in Scrip-
ture, do not doubt but that the same truth lies hidden in it
that is very clear in another passage. Whoever, therefore,
cannot understand the obscure ought to abide by the clear.”
(St. L., V, 334 ff.)

Finally, it is also true that doctrines of faith are not
always so clear and evident in Scripture in this sense that
every one may at once see and find them, even though he
reads Scripture half asleep, with his eyes half closed, or his
mind preoccupied with prejudices. In order to see and find
all doctrines of faith in Scripture, it is necessary not only to
read the sacred pages, but also to seek and search them,
keeping the mind free from all prejudices and open to every
ray of light emanating from them. Therefore Christ Himself
does not only say: “Read the Scriptures,” but: “Search the
Scriptures” (Zoavvdate wis yeugds), “for in them ye think
ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me,”
John 5:39. This fact does not give any one any support for
assuming that Scripture contains articles of faith which are
not clearly and unmistakably revealed. The clarity and
perspicuity of Scripture make it possible for any one to
understand any book of the Bible; nevertheless, the Bible
student must read carefully, search earnestly, be free from
prejudice, be open-minded and receptive to the truth. There-
fore the apostle wrote: “But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the Image of God,
should shine unto them,” 2 Cor. 4:3,4. Is it not shocking
when people ascribe to the alleged obscurity and ambiguity
of the Scriptures what is merely the result of human blind-
ness and malice or at any rate of human weakness?

Whatever is not “clearly and unmistakably” revealed in
Scripture is not revealed at all. To maintain that certain
doctrines of faith are indeed revealed in Scripture but not
in clear, understandable words is nothing else than a denial

of God’s wisdom and goodness and blasphemy against God or
a denial of the divine origin of Holy Writ. Tertium non datur.

When our opponents set up as an argument for the sup-
port of their theory of open questions the principle that some
doctrines of faith, that of Sunday, for instance, are not clearly
and unmistakably revealed in Scripture, they give evidence
of an irreconcilable difference in their theology and that of
our Evangeiical Lutheran Church. For the Evangelical Lu-
theran Church in her whole theology stands upon the prin-
ciple that Scripture is clear and plain in all doctrines of faith.
Therefore she lets Scripture speak for itself and judges
doctrines by the clear Word of God. Our opponents, how-
ever, proceed from the principle that Scripture is obscure
and easily misunderstood also in doctrines of faith and, con-
sequently, let their own judgment decide one way or the
other.

This is an error of far-reaching, ruinous consequences.
We know with what detrimental effect the Papacy has in-
sisted on the principle that Scripture is obscure and difficult
to understand. We also know how the Reformed Church
has applied this principle to the clear words of the institution
of the Lord’s Supper. The Reformed attitude demonstrates
that our opponents gain nothing by maintaining that they
do not count the doctrine of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
among the open questions because they are clearly and un-
mistakably revealed in God’s Word. For if we accept as true
that Scripture contains doctrines of faith, e.g., the doctrine
of Sunday, which are not clearly and unmistakably revealed,
we have destroyed a pillar of revelation, whose ruin will
eventually involve the collapse of the whole structure. If
men do not want to bring about this ruin, — and certainly
some of our opponents do not desire it, — there is only one
course for them to pursue, i.e., to admit that Scripture is
plain and clear in all doctrines of faith and to agree that
everything which is clearly and unmistakably revealed in
Scripture can be proved from its chapters either in a brief
statement or in a more or less elaborate essay or after
solving some existing difficulties. The Arminians are a further
example of the ruin caused by this false principle. This is
what Calvoer says of them: “They claim that no one is
bound to believe anything outside of that which is plainly
written in so many words in Scripture or that can be de-
duced and proved from the words of the Bible according to
the laws of logic and so be grasped with the hands, as it
were, as, for example, the sequence ‘It runs; therefore it
moves.’ Consequently, according to their Opinion, no one is
bound to believe in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, in the
personal union in Christ, in the essential presence of Christ’s
body and blood in Holy Communion, etc., especially not, if
he has scruples in regard to any of these doctrines. The
following must also be added to the things which one is
not obligated to believe, namely, that the Holy Ghost must
be worshiped; that Christ was born of the substance of
Mary; that the fathers of the Old Testament died in the hope
of eternal life; that faith in Christ is one; that men are
justified through the merits of Christ; that Christ was not
bound to be obedient; that faith is received through the
merits of Christ; that children can be regenerated; that there
is original sin; that sins flowing out of original sin are essen-
tially sin; that the death which God pronounced upon Adam
was at the same time eternal death; that God is omnipresent,
omniscient; that concupiscence belongs to the sins for whose
forgiveness we ask in the Lord’s Prayer; that man cannot
free himself from sin; that the government may shed blood;
that the Decalog demands everything that is to be done,
even self-denial, taking up one’s cross, etc.; that it is neces-
sary to believe in infant baptism; that Baptism is a seal of
the forgiveness of sins; that the same bodies will rise from
the dead. For, they believe, it is impossible to prove from
Scripture that any one of these points is undeniably true
and must necessarily be accepted.” (Fissurae Zionis. Lips.
1700. 4. p.541sq.)

What a long list of doctrines which they allege are not
clearly and unmistakably revealed in Scripture! But the
principle that Scripture contains doctrines of faith which are
not clearly and unmistakably revealed and must therefore
be counted as open questions inevitably leads not only to
unionism and syncretism, but also to thoroughgoing skepti-
cism and indifference in doctrine, even to the most shocking
unbelief, and finally ends in the principle of the well-known