The Leading Cause of Death in America

Newsletter Article for April 2005

© 2005 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

The government and the popular media would like you to believe that more people die of heart disease each year than any other cause, but that is not quite true. According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in 2002 (the latest data available) 696,947 people died of heart disease and 557,271 people died of cancer. These were the reported leading causes of death in 2002, but in their annual reports the NCHS and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) omit the greatest killer of Americans. In 2002 there were an estimated 1,300,000 people killed by abortion in the United States. This is more than died of heart disease and cancer combined! That makes abortion, far and away, the leading cause of death in America, but because of politics, it is officially unacknowledged.

The failure of the government to accurately report this fact means that few people realize the true magnitude of the problem. Although the information is available, you really have to work to find it, and few people do, so most Americans remain ignorant about the magnitude of the tragedy. The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) calculates that since 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court first illegally legislated nationwide permissive abortion laws, there have been at least 44,000,000 abortion deaths in the United States through 2004. The AGI also believes that these numbers are low by as much as 2,000,000 due to abortion providers underreporting their true numbers.

These numbers are truly frightening. Although the number of people killed each year in abortions has gone down slightly since about 1990, the 1,300,000 Americans killed each year are more than were killed in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the two recent Iraq wars, and the war in Afghanistan combined (1,111,000)!

This is one issue in which Christians should be the strongest voices in opposition to this senseless slaughter, and among those supporting anti-abortion activities Christians certainly are well represented, and Christians aren’t the only ones working to stop the slaughter, but compared to the magnitude of the problem their voices seem to be as yet small and drowned out by a belligerent force viciously supporting the murder of millions of innocent babies each year. Christians should be united in this cause because God’s Word is very clear. God’s Command says, “You shall not murder.” In several other places such as Deut. 18:10-13 and Leviticus 18:21 God further clarifies this by forbidding and condemning parents from murdering their children. In Jeremiah 7:31 God condemns His people for killing their children because it was “something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.” Although the ancient people did this to children who were already born there is no doubt that God’s response was and is the same. In Deut. 18 God forbids the ritual murder of children, calls it “detestable”, and reminds them that it is because of these “detestable practices” of the Canaanites that God was going to drive them out of the land in order to give the land to the Israelites (who would presumably not do such practices.)

Now some godless abortion apologist would likely point out that in not one of the 44,000,000 (or 46,000,000) abortions performed in the U.S. in the past 32 years has anyone called on Molech. This much is true, as far as it goes, but it ignores the real reasons behind the ancient pagan practice of infanticide. The reason why the ancient pagans killed their children was because they wanted their god to bless them and make them prosper and if this detestable practice meant one less mouth to feed then so much the better (until the real God got fed up with this and sent conquering enemies to slaughter the whole lot of them). People today have abortions for much the same reason. They want to prosper, and what they imagine prosperity to be is being able to commit adulteries and fornication and not have to deal with the responsibilities of the results of such activities (i.e. children).

You can ignore ALL of the popular arguments in favor of abortion. They are all grotesque, detestable lies. According to National Right to Life, a survey of women seeking abortions indicated that only 7% of women cited typical “hard cases” (rape, incest, or some health concern with either the baby or the mother) as the primary reason they were seeking abortion. That means 93% of abortions (about 41,000,000 in the past 32 years) were the completely “detestable” actions committed for the convenience of the mother and/or the father (not that the other 7% are not also detestable to God). Although the statistics also show that the death rate for women who have abortions has gone down since 1973, it is still immoral to slaughter 1,300,000 innocent babies to save 200 lives.

Bernard Nathanson is a former abortion doctor who helped sell legal abortion to the nation in the early 1970’s. He came to realize what a horror this really was and in an eye-opening and chilling article entitled “How Lying Marketers Sold Roe vs. Wade to America” he tells how abortion advocates lied (and still lie) to influence public opinion. He says,

We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal, enlightened, sophisticated one, knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60 percent of Americans were in favor of permissive abortion. This is the tactic of the self-fulfilling lie. Few people care to be in the minority. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000, but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1 million.

Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000.

Another myth we fed to the public through the media was that legalizing abortion would only mean that the abortions taking place illegally would then be done legally. In fact, of course, abortion is now being used as a primary method of birth control in the U.S. and the annual number of abortions has increased by 1,500 percent since legalization.

The lying continues, as shown by the government’s refusal to accurately report the number of abortions and their reticence to include these figures in reports such as the ones which list the leading causes of death among Americans. It makes one wonder about the politicians who are so outspoken in support for this murderous “choice”. Apparently they are pandering to the wicked desires of their constituents who wish to engage in any of a number of wicked lifestyles without any fear of retribution or responsibility for their actions. It is telling that former President Clinton disingenuously said that abortion ought to be “safe, legal, and rare”. If something is so admittedly immoral that it ought to be “rare”, then the best way to make it rare is for it to be made illegal, no matter how “safe” it may be. It is certainly not “safe” for the 1,300,000 babies who are viciously murdered every year.

Black Christian Americans ought to be especially vocal in their opposition to this outrageous massacre. The largest abortion provider in the world is Planned Parenthood, which was founded by the racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who promoted the idea that non-white races were inferior. The fruit of this ideology is seen in the fact that according to the CDC, 36% of all women who obtained abortions in 2001 were black. This is far out of proportion with the fact that black people only comprise around 13% of the general population. The CDC also reports that “The abortion ratio for black women (491 per 1,000 live births) was 3.0 times the ratio for white women (165 per 1,000).” That ratio is astoundingly sad! It means that nearly for every two children who are born to black mothers one other baby is killed by abortion! There should be protests in the street until this wickedness is ended, but instead, black Americans have been overwhelmingly supportive of the major political party which advocates this massacre. Where you find such inconsistencies you are surely to find sin at the root of it.

Holy Scripture frequently describes sin as “darkness” because sin has a blinding effect on those in its grasp. Christ Jesus has a cure for this blindness. He is the cure for this blindness. Jesus calls on all sinners to repent of their sins and look to Him for forgiveness. In John 3:19-21 Jesus describes the situation in this way, “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” Christians are the Body of Christ in the world by His grace and we must shed light on such wickedness and sin. The sinners surely are not going to like it, but if we can lead sinners to repentance and also to faith in Jesus then in the end it is much better than burning in hell for eternity. Some may object that not all who practice or seek abortions will burn in hell, but only those who repent of this sin (and all others) and look to Christ for forgiveness will escape the torment of hell.

It really isn’t enough for Christians to say that, “Well, I would never commit adultery or fornication or kill my baby. I don’t want to impose my beliefs on others.” Remember that in the Old Testament when Israel had such ideas God punished the whole nation. And besides, God wants ALL people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). The truth is that abortion in America has gone beyond mass murder, and even beyond genocide. It is fortunate for us that God is “slow to anger” (Num. 14:18) because “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4) God will certainly forgive those who repent of any evil thing, but although God is slow to anger, when his wrath is kindled it is fearsome. Those who wish to remain in their sins are certainly still subject to God’s anger and punishment. If we, as Christians “love one another” as Jesus loves us then we ought to vehemently condemn sins such as abortion as the wicked things that they are so that the sinners may repent and find forgiveness in Jesus. God is a forgiving God who sent His own Son to be our savior. Jesus willingly sacrificing His life that we might be spared God’s eternal wrath. We can also show the world that through the grace of God even the fruits of adultery (children) can be a tremendous blessing from God to people who love Him.

A Squirrel in the House

Newsletter article for March 2005

© 2005 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

There once was a group of tenants who rented a house. One day a squirrel got into the house and began to make a mess. The squirrel chewed holes in the tenants belongings, knocked over the furnishings, and made a great mess in the house. The tenants complained to the landlord and he sent a housekeeper to clean up the mess and deal with the situation.

When the housekeeper arrived at the house he saw what the problem was right away. He quickly began planning to get rid of the squirrel and clean up the mess in the house. But when he told the tenants what he was going to do they strongly objected. They thought the squirrel was “cute” and they had really grown attached to it and didn’t want to get rid of the squirrel, despite the damage it was doing in the house. The housekeeper had never before heard such nonsense and tried to reason with the tenants, but they wouldn’t let him remove the squirrel so that he could clean up the house. The housekeeper was determined to clean up the house because he worked for the landlord and not the tenants, but so as not to upset the tenants too much too quickly he resolved to move slowly.

The housekeeper thought he would first try to clean up a little bit of the mess the squirrel had made so that the tenants would see how good it was to live in a clean house, and then he would also explain to them all the good benefits of squirrel removal so that they would appreciate when the squirrel was gone. This was the plan, but it didn’t go quite as he had hoped. Whenever the housekeeper tried to clean up the mess the squirrel had made, or repair the damage it had done the tenants objected. They had grown so attached to the squirrel over time that they had gotten so used to the squirrel’s destruction that they couldn’t bear to live without it, and they wouldn’t let the housekeeper lift one finger to do the work that he had been sent to accomplish.

The housekeeper tried to show the tenants that keeping a wild animal in the house was self-destructive, and it violated the terms of their lease, but they dismissed the words of the housekeeper by calling him such things as “insensitive” and “uncaring.” Some of the tenants might have listened to the housekeeper, but the other tenants told them that the real problem was the housekeeper, and that all their problems would go away if the housekeeper left. So the housekeeper found little support among the tenants.

Most of the time the tenants listened politely to what the housekeeper told them about all the benefits of letting him remove the squirrel and cleaning up the landlord’s house where they lived, but they didn’t believe a word of it, and they wouldn’t let the housekeeper do his work.

As time went by some of the tenants did grow weary of living in a house which was increasingly being torn to bits by the squirrel and its progeny. The squirrel had made a nest and there was a whole family of squirrels just destroying the landlord’s house and despoiling the tenants’ belongings. A few tenants decided to move out, and a little later, a few more tenants moved out. The housekeeper couldn’t blame them for leaving. He would have left himself except that the landlord had given him a job to do and he wanted to see the job accomplished. He also wanted the tenants to see the wisdom of getting rid of the squirrel so that even if they moved somewhere else they would not bring such destruction to another of the landlord’s houses.

When the tenants saw that people were moving out they began to get upset and again blamed the housekeeper. The housekeeper thought that this was just more of their nonsensical rationalizations, but there was a bit of truth to their complaints. The housekeeper had not done his job and people were leaving. It’s not that people wouldn’t have left if he had done the job in opposition to the tenants, but he had tried to accommodate the irrational and self-destructive desires of these tenants, and in doing this he hadn’t done his job.

The housekeeper began to do what he had been sent to do. He found all the squirrel nests in the house and removed them and all squirrels that he was able to find. Then he started to clean up and repair the damage done by the rodents. The tenants had a fit! They complained about what the housekeeper was doing. They told how other tenants in other houses lived in similar squirrel squalor, as if that would excuse their own misdeeds. Then they proceeded to call the housekeeper all kinds of nasty names. They tried to turn all of the other tenants against the housekeeper and the landlord by telling lies about him. When they saw they couldn’t intimidate him from doing his job they began to conspire secretly how they could sneak more squirrels into the house without the housekeeper or the landlord knowing about it.

When the situation had gotten so bad that the house was beyond repair the tenants still tenaciously kept at their destructive ways. They complained that they had hit rock bottom, but they didn’t believe they were really at rock bottom because they still felt that everything would be better if only the housekeeper wasn’t there to clean up the mess that they had allowed to grow, and they still tried to get the housekeeper kicked out of the landlord’s house. A squirrel is not a person, but they loved that squirrel and its destruction more than they loved the housekeeper or the landlord.

What do you think the landlord will do to those wicked tenants? (See Matt. 21:33-44)

The Christian and Culture

Newsletter article for February 2005

by Rev. Paul Wolff

© 2005 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

It has become something of a commonplace for Christians in our culture to believe that in order to win converts we must be sensitive to the culture of the people we are witnessing to, instead of seeking to replace the godless worldly culture with a true worship of God. This would only be true if the process of winning converts would only involve trying to please people. Holy Scripture rejects this view. Saint Paul writes to the Galatians, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Gal. 1:10) If we seek to accommodate earthly culture in order to please people then we have made the people and their culture into false gods, which God condemns.

In the Old Testament God did not give the Israelite people the specific task of evangelism or making converts. God’s people were to give witness and testimony about God’s gracious kindness through their history and the blessings of life. There’s actually more directions from God about totally destroying the pagan idolaters who were inhabiting the land which God reserved for His people, Israel, than about converting other peoples. They weren’t told to destroy all pagan idolaters, just the ones living where God wanted His people to live. For those foreigners who saw God’s gracious dealing with Israel and wished to be a part of God’s people, God gave guidelines as to how this was to be done. In many cases foreigners were welcomed into the family of God, but they had to submit completely to God’s laws, including circumcision and the ceremonial and religious laws, and they had to completely forsake their previous way of life including all worship of other gods and even foreign dietary practices which conflicted with God’s Law.

In Deuteronomy 7:3 God forbade intermarriage with pagans because God knew that these spouses would tend to turn the people away from God, rather than vice versa. The Israelite people were a people holy to God and He wanted them to remain in His love (see John 15:9-10) and that is why He warned them not to accommodate the cultures of other people.

In Deuteronomy 7:7-11 God explains that He did not choose Israel because they were more numerous or more powerful than the other nations. The Israelite nation was small and weak in comparison with many of their neighbors. Actually when God chose them as His people there were only two of them: Abraham and Sarah; and they were already rather old at the time. This fact is also a good answer to those who question the validity of Scripture by saying, “What makes you think Christianity is the only true religion?” as if to say that “might makes right” or because two thirds of the world denies God this means that four billion to two billion – you lose. Four billion people can be wrong if they deny God’s Word.

One person who is faithful to God’s Word can stand against any number of those who deny God even if the odds are six billion people to one person. Jesus says, “If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Notice that Jesus doesn’t make any concessions to cultural considerations, unless you count faithfulness to His Word as a cultural consideration, but that would be God’s culture, rather than earthly culture. When God chose Israel as His people He looked after them and gave them prime land to live on, and He defeated their more powerful enemies, and protected them as long as they were obedient to Him and kept His law.

When the Israelites took over the land of Canaan God told them to destroy all cultural artifacts which went along with the false worship practices of the pagans. God’s people were instructed by God not to have respect for the cultures of the pagans. These cultural artifacts were not some quaint reminder of the olden days without any deeper meaning, they were an ongoing threat to the true faith and a stumbling block which would lead people to forsake God if not destroyed. When Israel did as God asked He was pleased and blessed them and gave them victory and protection. When Israel disobeyed God and saved some of these foreign cultural artifacts, God was angry and He punished the people for their rebellion.

When God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 & Deut. 5) He specifically stated in the preamble to the First Commandment that the authority of these commands comes from the fact that the one who spoke them is “the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” This would be true and valid even for foreigners even if it were not specifically historically true for those who came from other nations originally. It would be true spiritually when the foreigners abandoned their cultures and were adopted by God and made a part of His people through His eternal covenant.

Even in the New Testament where Christ sends His Apostles to go to the “ends of the earth” to make disciples, and the ceremonial rules of the Old Testament have been fulfilled and completed in Christ himself, God’s people are not to make concessions to culture. Jesus commissions His disciples to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them … and teaching them….” Jesus commands His people to use the means of grace so that the Holy Spirit would change the worldly cultures into a Christian culture.

Peter writes, “once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.” (1 Peter 2:10) Christianity has its own culture which supersedes all worldly cultures. Paul also writes to the Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Thus the cultural identities which we formerly had no longer apply to the Christian.

Should we be worried that we might offend people’s cultures? No, we should fear God rather than men. Are we going to offend? Evangelism always includes calling sinners to repentance. How can that not offend someone? St. Paul recognizes this reality when he writes to the Corinthian Church that the message of the crucified Christ is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Cor. 1:23) Does this fact stop him from offending such people? Not at all. Only ten verses later in his letter Paul writes, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Hermeneutics

Newsletter article for December 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“There is no God.”

“I am a god.”

“God is tempting me.”

“Jesus be cursed.”

This may seem like a foolish question, but which of these phrases comes from the Bible? The quick and easy answer is that they all are found in the Bible, but the true answer is that in this form they are all taken out of context. Here are these same verses in their proper context:

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Psalm 14:1)

“Will you then say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who kill you? You will be but a man, not a god, in the hands of those who slay you.” (Ezekiel 28:9)

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.” (James 1:13-16)

“No one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (I Corinthians 12:3)

Hermeneutics is the study of the interpretation of texts such as the Holy Scriptures. As I have demonstrated above the proper interpretation is essential if a person is going to properly understand what the Bible has to teach. Otherwise if we have a false method of interpreting the Bible we can even make God’s Word say what we want it to say, despite what it really says.

Jesus calls the devil the “father of lies” (John 8:44) but even the devil lies in a sneaky way so that he makes his deadly lies seem attractive and true. When the devil was tempting Jesus (see Luke 4 or Matt. 4) he quoted Psalm 91:11-12 which reads, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” What the devil was trying to do was to get Jesus to commit suicide by jumping off of a tall building. His wicked reasoning went like this: “If God promised to protect you then you can’t be hurt, so make him prove it by jumping.” Jesus was not convinced by this fallacious argument. First of all, Jesus believed the teaching from Psalm 91 so he didn’t need to prove that God would save him. He already knew it by faith. Also, Jesus knew better than to say, “Well, if the Bible says it then it must be true.” Jesus knew the Bible better than that. He answered the devil by quoting another Bible verse which says “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Deut. 6:16) This demonstrates the hermeneutical principle which states, “Let Scripture interpret Scripture.” All scripture is true because it is God’s Word (2 Tim. 3:16) so just because one passage is accepted as true it doesn’t mean that you can reject another.

We saw this type of false hermeneutic at St. Timothy earlier this year when an unknown and still-unrepentant person made reference to Exodus 32:18 in a newsletter article which gave the false argument that because God wants us to sing then all singing must be God-pleasing. Well, anyone who is familiar with the story of Exodus 32 knows that God was not pleased with this singing, and He was so angry over their false praise that he was ready to destroy all the people of Israel (see v. 10) and start over with Moses. So just because singing is one way to properly praise God, it doesn’t mean that all singing properly praises God.

I have also heard someone try to tell me this year that because Scripture says to “Sing for joy to the Lord” (Ps. 95) it is all right to commit the idolatry of self-worship. Well, not exactly in those words, but that was the obvious intent of the argument in the same way that Satan also tried to tempt Jesus to disobey God by his misuse of Psalm 91. I was not swayed by this misuse of God’s Word, but I am extremely concerned that some people around here are misusing God’s Word in just such a way, and that other people are possibly being misled by such lies.

Hermeneutics by themselves are not pro-Christian or anti-Christian. They are tools which may help Christians understand God’s Word so that through it they may believe in Jesus and receive His salvation. A proper interpretation of God’s Word shows us Christ as our savior. An improper interpretation shows us something else which cannot save us. It is the great strength of Lutheran theology that we have the proper tools to understand the Scriptures “which are able to make you wise unto salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15), but even the best theology and the best teaching will do no good if we don’t use them, or don’t believe the truth of God’s Word. “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.” (James 1:16)

The Fruits of Pietism

Newsletter article for November 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Pietism is an anti-Christian ideology which completely turns upside down the role of piety in Christian life. Proper Christian piety is what we do to practice and live out our faith. Pietism makes piety primary and faith secondary (actually pietism tries to turn faith itself into a good work, contrary to Eph. 2:8-9). Pietism makes works its goal rather than faith. Those who understand Lutheran doctrine, or the Biblical teachings on faith and good works, will understand that pietism emphasizes the Law over the Gospel.

Although pietists claim to be fervent Christians, and claim to do everything in the name of Christ, pietism is truly anti-Christian because it steals away the true comfort Christians have in the all-sufficient work of Christ and replaces it with an emphasis on personal acts or feelings to provide a false sense of satisfaction. There may be some temporary sense of comfort in pietistic acts, but that only works as long as we can keep it going. The problem with basing our faith on feelings is the same problem with illicit drugs. A first time drug user will feel an incredible “high” with a relatively small amount of the drug, but each subsequent experience requires more of the drug to feel good, and the user will find himself or herself dismayed that the original good feelings cannot be reproduced. When true healing comes it feels a lot like suffering and pain and death rather than anything approaching peace and comfort. So it is that pietists become “addicted” to good works which aren’t really good works in the Biblical sense because pietists intend to serve their own feelings rather than serving their neighbor in a truly God–pleasing way.

Pietists do not see Holy Scripture as the sole source and authority of doctrine and the Christian life. Personal experiences or feelings are valued more. Pietists are more likely to believe the false teaching that God speaks to them personally apart from the Holy Scriptures. This all too easily plays into the hands of the devil, who is eager to substitute his lies for the truth of God’s word. Remember that the devil got Eve to doubt God’s word by saying, “Did God really say…?” Pietists may encourage Bible study, but since personal feelings are valued more than the truth – individual interpretations easily lead to false teachings, false belief, and heresy. Even Bible studies led by a trained pastor will be seen as an exercise in finding consensus rather than an exercise in learning the truth of God’s word.

Because pietism is based upon subjective feelings, pietists will rationalize sin as long as they feel they are doing something which is pleasing to God. It won’t matter to a pietist that a particular sin is condemned by God in Holy Scripture because as long as it feels right the feelings matter more to them than an objective command, even if it comes from God. So the pietist will be very bold in his or her sins.

In the Bible there is perhaps no greater example of a pietist rationalizing his sin than King David. There have been few people (if any) who have had so much trust in God to put their lives on the line as much as David, and fewer people who have received so much earthly blessings as a result of such faith. But when David committed adultery with Uriah’s wife and then when the cover-up failed had Uriah murdered, it must have seemed to David that despite the unbelievable wickedness of those sins they were the right things to do because they felt like the right things to do at the time. It made David feel good to spend intimate time with Bathsheba, and then it felt good to have her husband killed because at least that was better (in David’s eyes) than publicly admitting the betrayal and being stoned to death for committing this crime. However, even the faithful David’s feelings betrayed him. He forgot for a few brief, but tragic, moments that he was a sinner and that his feelings were corrupted by sin. He realized this later when he repented and he confessed in Psalm 51 that he was “sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

There is no lasting comfort in pietism. If we trust in our feelings we will sooner or later be betrayed by them also. Our feelings are inherently selfish, and if we place ourselves above all things then there will be no room in our lives for God and His word. There is true comfort in God’s word. Even if we find ourselves suffering like for doing good, like the addict who has forsaken the feel-good drugs, we can be assured of God’s forgiveness and salvation.

God’s word is a sure thing because it shows us what Jesus has done for us, and not what we need to do. Jesus told the Pharisees, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40) The Scriptures do deliver eternal life because they show us Jesus. “Whoever believes in [Jesus] will have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Christ’s life and death and resurrection is the source of all our comfort, and the motivation for all our good works, because He did this all for our sakes so that we can be comforted by our salvation no matter whether we feel good about ourselves or not.

Feeling Good can Kill You!

Newsletter article for August 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

There is a war going on. Actually, there seem to be several wars going on all at the same time. The war that I would like to consider here has been labeled the “Culture War”. This war is being fought between Christianity and Culture. It is not a new battle. It has been fought since the beginning. Holy Scripture describes it as the “great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14).

Although the Culture War is being fought for the hearts and minds of all Christians, it is parents who are engaged in the most important battles. I say that this is the most important because in the culture wars it is the children who are most vulnerable, and it is also vitally important that our children stay on the Christian side of this war, rather than being recruited for the other side.

Why is this called a “war”? Saint Peter describes it in this way, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11) Scripture frequently describes antagonism between the world and faithful followers of God. The “world” are those who follow their sinful desires against God’s commands. Christians are those who, though they are also sinners, by the grace of God live by faith in Jesus and by His grace they do what God commands. The war is what happens when the world tries to turn Christians against God through temptation to sin.

Make no mistake, this really is a war. The worldly side in this culture war would like you to believe that it is something completely different, that is, something which is really harmless and benign, when in fact if the battle is lost it is very deadly. Saint Paul describes it in this way, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.…We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (1 Cor. 10:4-5)

The battles in this war can be most clearly seen in temptations to such sins as sexual immorality and the pleasures of illicit drugs. The world tempts us with such things by trying to get us to believe that such things are good for us because they make us feel good. There is a bit of truth to that, but as they say, “a half truth is a whole lie.” It is true that there is probably nothing that is more pleasurable than drugs such as heroin or cocaine, but the lie in this is shown by the fact that it is a one-time “high,” you can never feel that good again. After the initial pleasure then the person is hooked and driven by a powerful desire to feel that way again, but such a thing can never be attained, and as the person seeks to feel good he or she is destroying their body.

Another front in this culture war is fought concerning sexual sins. God has given us sexuality as a blessing for married couples so that they may “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (see Gen. 9:7). Jesus taught that the Holy Scriptures show us that God intended marriage to be as long as they both shall live (see Matt. 19:4-6), but the world says, “if it feels good, then what harm can it do?” The harm that these sins can do is seen in the betrayal of marital vows, or the betrayal of the physical intimacy between lovers, and also in sexually transmitted diseases, in broken families, and fatherless children and orphans.

In a way, these are relatively easy battles for Christian parents to fight. We can easily show our children that if you take drugs then you might wreck your health or die. We can easily show our children that if you commit adultery then your life will be changed in any of a number of ways, none of them worth the momentary pleasure of the sin. Our children may not listen to us, and still may fall into the temptations of these sins, but the consequences of these temptations are easily seen and can be easily taught. The real tough battles in the culture war are the spiritual battles. These are the temptations to sin against the First Commandment (“You shall have no other gods.”)

The difficulty with fighting spiritual battles is that the bad consequences are not seen. Unlike the physical consequences of other sins, the result of losing the spiritual battles cannot be seen by anyone in this life. No one knows what hellish things that others experience, so when people lose the spiritual battles it is hard to point that out to our children and say, “See, if you turn against God in this way then this will happen to you, too.” The worldly culture tempts us to sin against the first commandment in much the same way as it tempts us to sin against the other commandments. We are told, “Try it, you’ll like it. It feels good, and it won’t hurt you one little bit.” In a way, it can be very fun to follow false gods, but again there is a terrible price to pay in the end.

Parents have a difficult job in fighting the war between Christianity and culture. The best weapon we have is God’s Word. As we teach and live according to God’s Word, then we arm our children to fight and become victorious in the culture wars. One simple, useful, practical way to help our children is to use the word, “no.” If we learn to say “no” to our children at the right time then we can teach them to learn some self control to deny themselves some of the pleasures of life. This is important because if we are comfortable denying ourselves some worldly pleasures then we can be comfortable denying ourselves the destructive pleasures of sin. There are many ways that feeling good can kill you, but if we train ourselves and our children to say “no” to the pleasures of the flesh then with the help of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be victorious in the culture war against Christianity.

Reconciliation

Newsletter article for June 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Reconciliation is a word which has weighed heavy on my mind lately. Perhaps it has been on your mind, too. It means to become friends again. Obviously this assumes that something has happened between friends which has broken their friendship or even in an extreme case has made them enemies. The opposite of reconciliation is estrangement or alienation. The ultimate cause of estrangement is sin, and because we are all sinners estrangement is not all that strange to us. Since estrangement is familiar to us then reconciliation also ought to be familiar to us, but people’s sinful pride gets in the way of that far too often.

In my consideration of the word “reconciliation” I did what I often do, I went to the Holy Scriptures to see how God uses this word. This is a good habit to get into. I learned this from a good friend. Jesus himself had the habit of going to the Holy Scriptures to deal with events in His life. He did it to teach. He did it to answer questions (both honest questions, and evil ones intended to entrap him). He did it to withstand temptation. He did it when He was dying, and He did it after he was resurrected from the dead. Jesus was familiar with the Bible because He was familiar with God. If we wish to be a member of God’s family then we also ought to be familiar with the Bible.

When you use your concordance (or computer Bible word search) it is important to keep in mind a few simple rules of Bible interpretation. Jesus was a very good interpreter of the Bible. He was the best, and although this also is one way in which no one can fully measure up to Jesus, it is not hard to properly interpret the Bible. The people who make it hard are the ones who don’t believe God’s word. It is actually quite simple. Proper Bible interpretation all comes down to the answer to this simple question: “What does the Bible say?” It really is that easy. The hard part comes when, in our sinfulness, we don’t like what the Bible says and we try to make it say what we want it to say instead of what it really says. We saw that a couple months ago in an unauthorized article in this newsletter which quoted Bible verses about praise, but did it in a way which ignored the context of the verses and really said something opposite to what the those passages really teach about the true praise of God. The rules of Bible interpretation are simple, but they are absolutely important.

I found nine occurrences of the word “reconcile” in its various forms in the NIV Bible. Several of the passages (Matt. 5:23-24; Luke 12:58-59; Acts 7:26; and 1 Cor. 7:11) encourage or command people to become friends again with each other. As I said above, this is to be expected in a sinful world in which our pride is a great sin. There are many other Bible passages which show reconciliation and how it should be handled such as Matt. 18:15-17 and Genesis 45:4-7, but for this essay I am simply focusing on the passages which use a form of the word “reconcile.” The passages which are most helpful to us estranged sinners are the other passages which describe our reconciliation with God. You may find these in your Bible at: Romans 5:10-11; Rom. 11:15; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:14-18; and Colossians 1:15-23. You may not think that the verses which tell us how we are reconciled with God would be more valuable to us in reconciling with one another, but that would be wrong. God’s ways are not the same as the world’s ways, and Christians especially need to be reconciled with God before we are reconciled with one another.

We are all estranged from God because of our sinfulness. Remember how Adam and Eve were kicked out of God’s garden paradise after they sinned against God’s command (Genesis 3). The estrangement of sin is severe, and there is nothing we can do about it. Romans 5:10-11 reminds us that our sin makes us God’s enemies, but we are reconciled to God through the death of His Son, Jesus. It is Jesus who has made us friends again with God. He has endured the punishment for our sins so God is no longer angry over them, and he has also forgiven us for causing him to suffer. The effect of Christ’s reconciliation is that we can have access to God’s heavenly paradise where we shall live in peace and happiness forever.

Because of Christ’s reconciliation, St. Paul told the believers in Corinth (2 Cor. 5:16-21) that we now regard no one from a worldly point of view. If Christ went to the cross and the grave in order to make us friends again with God the Father, then our estrangements here on earth are petty and small by comparison. They may not seem small, but we may quickly learn from experience that things aren’t always what they seem. If we look at our estrangements from God’s point of view they all are small and easily overcome. The key is forgiveness. Here again we learn forgiveness from Jesus. We learn in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt. 18:21-35) that Jesus has forgiven us so much, that if we treasure His forgiveness then it is relatively easy to forgive the little things which keep us apart.

Reconciliation is easy for Christians because Jesus enables us to do it all the time. Reconciliation is impossible for unbelievers because they reject the forgiveness of their sins through Jesus Christ, and so therefore they reject the forgiveness of one another. Christians rely on God’s forgiveness every day of their lives so reconciliation is quite familiar. I pray that God would lead all sinners at St. Timothy to repentance so that they may joyfully receive Christ’s forgiveness, and having received this treasure they may also share that forgiveness and reconciliation with one another. I include myself in this, but it would be a tragedy for me to be the only one to repent. I repent of my sins daily, but I am not here to be the only one who receives Christ’s forgiveness and reconciliation. I am here to lead Christ’s sheep to the green pastures of His paradise. Christ has taught me that the way to paradise comes only through faith in His forgiveness and reconciliation. Read the Scripture passages which I have referenced above. May Christ lead you to repentance of all your sins, and receive the blessings of His forgiveness and reconciliation.

Unity

Newsletter article for May 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1)

It is no big secret that there is a decided lack of unity at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. This certainly cannot please God, who wishes unity among His people just as He has unity in Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The blessings of unity are obvious. Peace and harmony among God’s people is certainly “good and pleasant” as David writes in the Psalm. The curses of disunity are also obvious. Anger, distrust, accusations and similar things are very unsettling and difficult to deal with. Everyone can agree that unity is better than disunity, but then we must ask, “What is the basis for this unity?”

The Formula of Concord was written around 1580 during a time of disunity in the church. It sought to explain what ought to be the basis for unity in the church. The Formula goes on at length discussing several issues about which there had been disagreements, but a simple summary about what brings about true unity in the church is found in Article X where it says that there should be unity among Christians “as long as there is mutual agreement in doctrine and in all its articles as well as in the right use of the holy sacraments.” The true unity in the Christian church is found in agreement with the teachings of Holy Scripture, no less, and no more.

This should first make perfect sense to us because Holy Scripture is God’s Word, and if we cannot agree about the truth of God’s Word, then either one or both of the parties in the dispute have put themselves in opposition to God. There can never be peace when people set themselves against God, even when there is agreement to disagree about the truth of God’s Word.

It would seem a simple thing to base unity on agreement about the doctrinal teachings of God’s Word, and it would be, but for the interference of sin. Because all people are sinners we don’t want to believe what God tells us. We would rather seek to justify ourselves rather than admit that we are wrong and submit to our Lord’s instruction. This is why Jesus prayed to God the Father, “May [those who believe in me] be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent me and have loved them even as You have loved me.” (John 17:23) Jesus knew that believers are sinners and need God to bring them to “complete unity.” Christ’s purpose for this unity is so that unbelievers would know that Jesus has been sent by God to bring forgiveness and salvation to them so that they would trust in Him and be saved.

St. Paul encouraged the church in Ephesus when He wrote, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit– just as you were called to one hope when you were called– one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph. 4:3-6) Here again, the basis for our unity is in the true teachings of God’s Word. Scripture teaches that there is only one Lord, and there is only one saving faith in that Lord, and one Holy Baptism where that Lord makes us His own people because God is Lord of all. To deny the Lord’s means of grace is to deny Him, and to deny Him is to cause disunity and discord, and, given what Jesus said above, lead people away from their Savior toward their condemnation.

Fortunately Jesus has taken steps to prevent this. He has provided us with shepherds to keep us on the path that leads to eternal life. St. Paul again says, “It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 4:11-13) Here again, the unity comes through the “one faith” in Jesus Christ, and “the knowledge of the Son of God”. This “knowledge” refers to the correct teaching of Scriptural doctrine. This is one of the main reasons why the Lutheran Church insists on an educated clergy. Pastors need to remain faithful to God’s Word so that they can keep Christ’s sheep headed in the proper direction. The “rod and staff” of the shepherd is a comfort in Psalm 23 because the shepherd leads us “through the valley of the shadow of death” in safety as we follow Christ to salvation.

May God bless the Pastor of our congregation to show us the true path to salvation as God gives us in Holy Scripture, and may God bless the congregation to hear with the ears of little children (Matt. 18:3) so that they may dwell in unity in Christ’s Kingdom.

The Passion of Christ

Newsletter article for April 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Christ’s “Passion” refers to His suffering. The work of Christ has long been identified with His suffering because that is what the Holy Scriptures tell is the work of Christ. Isaiah 53:5 tells us that “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” If you have seen the new movie “The Passion of the Christ” you will note that this Scripture verse opens the movie and gives the necessary context in which to view it.

There are many ways to wrongly consider the Christ’s passion. Even before the new movie was released some Jewish groups were complaining that it would incite people to punish the Jews for their role in the death of Christ. This has happened in history, and it is absolutely a wrong interpretation of the sufferings of Christ to single out the Jews (or anyone else) as the ones who brought about some great injustice. It is equally wrong for those same Jews (and all others) to view the passion of Christ without believing that they were responsible for the death of Christ, and being responsible for Christ’s suffering and death also receive the benefits of that death.

Isaiah made it clear long ago that the Christ was to suffer and die for our sinfulness and through that punishment we would receive forgiveness and eternal life. Pressure from Jewish groups moved Mel Gibson to remove from the subtitles the quote from Matthew 27:25 where the crowd tells Pilate, “Let his blood be on us and on our children.” That is an ironic statement because although the crowd meant it as a self-curse, it is a blessing which all of God’s people can apply to themselves as John writes in 1 John 1:7 “The blood of Jesus, [God’s] son, purifies us from all sin.”

Although Martin Luther never saw Mel Gibson’s movie (or any other movie, for that matter), he did write a short essay in 1519 entitled, “A Meditation on Christ’s Passion”. In this essay Luther notes, “They contemplate Christ’s passion aright who view it with a terror-stricken heart and a despairing conscience. This terror must be felt as you witness the stern wrath and the unchanging earnestness with which God looks upon sin and sinners, so much so that he was unwilling to release sinners even for his only and dearest Son without his payment of the severest penalty for them.”

If we take Isaiah’s prophesy seriously (and we should) then we understand that Jesus suffered so much because of our sins. Because we love Jesus we ought to be horrified that our sinfulness and the disobedience of our sin caused our beloved Savior to suffer. If you can watch the scene in the movie where the soldiers are taking such pleasure and enjoyment in beating Jesus into a bloody pulp and not understand that it is you who is doing that every time you take some guilty pleasure in some sin, then you are also not correctly considering Christ’s passion. The movie shows this pretty well how the devil was taking pleasure in the murderous hatred of the soldiers. Satan tempts us all to sin by making sin seem fun even though the least of our sins caused Jesus immense pain.

Christians know, however, that the “terror” and “despair” in our hearts that we must feel for our guilt and sin is not an end in themselves. That would also be a wrong way to view the sufferings of Christ. Judas is the example which shows us that it is not enough to simply be sorry that we have done wrong. Faith trusts that although we are terribly guilty in the death of Jesus, He loves us and will forgive all the sins of those who trust in Him for salvation. Our sorrow over our guilt should cause us to fervently repent of all our sins, and look to Jesus to forgive us for all the pain we caused Him. Luther explained this wonderfully when he wrote:

You cast your sins from yourself and onto Christ when you firmly believe that his wounds and sufferings are your sins, to be borne and paid for by him, as we read in Isaiah 53 [:6], “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” St. Peter says, “in his body has he borne our sins on the wood of the cross” [I Pet. 2:24]. St. Paul says, “God has made him a sinner for us, so that through him we would be made just” [2 Cor. 5:21]. You must stake everything on these and similar verses. The more your conscience torments you, the more tenaciously must you cling to them. If you do not do that, but presume to still your conscience with your contrition and penance, you will never obtain peace of mind, but will have to despair in the end. If we allow sin to remain in our conscience and try to deal with it there, or if we look at sin in our heart, it will be much too strong for us and will live on forever. But if we behold it resting on Christ and [see it] overcome by his resurrection, and then boldly believe this, even it is dead and nullified. Sin cannot remain on Christ, since it is swallowed up by his resurrection. Now you see no wounds, no pain in him, and no sign of sin. Thus St. Paul declares that “Christ died for our sin and rose for our justification” [Rom. 4:25]. That is to say, in his suffering Christ makes our sin known and thus destroys it, but through his resurrection he justifies us and delivers us from all sin, if we believe this.

Any Christian who views a reenactment of the passion of Christ will have to feel ambivalent (i.e. have mixed feelings) about it. On the one hand we are sad that we caused Jesus to suffer and die because of the guilt of our sins, but on the other hand, we are glad that Jesus endured the pain and death so that he could rescue us from an eternity of such suffering.

Another thing to remember if you go to view the movie is that what you are seeing is not the crucifixion of Jesus. It is a movie with actors and fake blood. This ought to be obvious to everyone who goes, but these days you can never be too careful. You are not necessarily closer to Jesus if you view this reenactment of His death. Many people have seen the movie, and still do not believe in Jesus, and are still on their way to damnation. Many other people, who have never seen the movie still repent of their sins and trust in Christ and receive forgiveness and eternal life. Remember the words Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

(All Luther quotes from Vol. 42 of Luther’s works, p. 7-13. Philadelphia: Fortress Press; translation by Martin Bertram.)

Do Not Tell Anyone

Newsletter article for March 2004

© 2004, 2009 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Jesus “warned His disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Christ.” (Matthew 16:20) This seems a strange admonition, especially to us who live in an age where mission statements are quite a persistent fad. (The newsletter in which this article was originally published contained the congregation’s flawed mission statement.) Mission statements can be useful to give businesses a sense of purpose and direction, but it does tend to emphasize the wrong thing where the church is concerned. If we are to be a true church of Jesus Christ then we need to truly understand the teachings of Jesus in the many passages which He forbids evangelism.

In a quick search of the Scriptures I found about ten Bible verses where Jesus tells people not to tell anyone about Him. A few of these cases are easily understandable, but most deserve a little more study. In Mark 3:12 Jesus warned the demons not to tell who He was. This is very understandable because to the demons Jesus is only their judge and tormentor. There is no salvation for the demons, and though they brought their suffering and torment on themselves Jesus doesn’t want their witness to be what leads people to Him. Jesus doesn’t want to threaten people in order to draw them to Him. It is true that God is the one who judges and condemns the unbelievers, but God is primarily a God of mercy and love and He draws people to Himself through love and forgiveness. No one is going to be saved through coercion or force, but through faith in the forgiveness we receive through Jesus Christ. So the demons are silenced.

But why, then, does Jesus treat His disciples like the demons in Matt. 16? Peter had just confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and Jesus had told him that this confession came from God the Father Himself! Why then does Jesus treat Peter and the rest of the disciples no better than demons? The answer comes in what follows in Matt. 16. Jesus goes on to describe what it means that He is the Christ. The Christ is the one who must suffer and die at the hands of sinners. Peter, full of love for his friend, and having just witnessed the power of Jesus in the feeding of the four thousand people, said, “This shall never happen to you.” Upon hearing this Jesus comes right out and calls Peter “Satan” because these are the words of Satan. Only the devil and His followers don’t want Jesus to suffer and die on the cross. Those who love Jesus are actually relying on it. The suffering and death of Jesus is our only hope for salvation. If Jesus had listened to Peter (and to Satan when he said the same thing in Matt. 4:8-9) then there would be no salvation for any of us and the devil would have succeeded in destroying all whom God loves.

This passage helps us to understand why Jesus would tell His disciples not to tell anyone who He is. He forbids them from telling this because they have a false idea of who He is. They know that Jesus is the Christ, but they refuse recognize a “weak” Christ who permits himself to suffer and die at the hands of sinners. Because His innocent suffering and death is the very purpose for His being here, Jesus forbids them from telling others so that they are not led astray by some false impression of Jesus. Jesus sends them out only when the disciples have finished their training, have seen Him dead on the cross, seen Him alive after His resurrection, AND then on Pentecost received the Holy Spirit who Jesus said will “teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). Only then does Jesus send them out on the mission.

In the other cases where Jesus tells folks not to say anything it is usually because they exhibit a more subtle denial of Jesus. Some people say that when Jesus told people not to tell anyone about Him that He really wanted people to tell about Him. We can easily dismiss that as being false because that would make Jesus a manipulative liar. Although people then (and now) did frequently disregard His word and tell anyway, Jesus didn’t really want them to tell. Although Jesus was (and is) very generous in using His power to heal, He doesn’t want people to see Him only as a healer or miracle worker. Whether Jesus heals you or not is, in the end, irrelevant to your salvation. No one is in heaven today because Jesus is a miracle worker. Every person in heaven today is there because Jesus saved them from their sins through His obedient, innocent suffering and death.

People need to know what Jesus has done for their salvation, and that is exactly why God has provided pastors and teachers and evangelists. Without someone to tell us the good news of our forgiveness and salvation in Christ we would not be saved (Romans 10). God does equip and send these people throughout the world so that people everywhere can hear the message and be saved through faith. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4, “It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers” so that the body of Christ could be built up and God’s people prepared for doing His good works. Not all people are called to be pastors, teachers, or evangelists. Paul notes in I Corinthians 12:29 that not all people have these God-given callings. Scripture is very clear that not everyone is a minister, despite what you may have heard elsewhere. Peter encourages his readers (I Peter 3:15) to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have,” but he was writing to Christians who were being persecuted for their belief in Christ. The gift of Martyrdom is another gift that God does not give to everyone, but only to those whom He equips for that task also.

Although the task of evangelism is not something that God gives to all Christians, there is one “task” that God does give to all His people. Jesus says in John 6:29, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.” This is not a work as we understand works. Saving faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8-9). It isn’t miracles which save us. It isn’t good works that save us, except for the works that Jesus did on our behalf in His life and death. All Christians believe that Jesus is our only savior from the punishment for our sin, as Jesus tells us, “Whoever believes in [God’s Son] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:18)

Are you upset that your pastor has treated you like the devil? If he did this because you had a false impression about Jesus and His work or ministry then take heart and understand that Jesus did the same thing to the disciples whom He loved. The pastor should understand that, like Peter, not all of God’s children have a proper understanding of what Jesus is all about, and, like Peter, it sometimes takes some harsh words to teach God’s people. It took him a while, but Peter repented and allowed Jesus to teach him. Peter became a great Apostle and missionary because Jesus prepared him for the mission and didn’t allow him to go until he was properly equipped for the mission. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” not just because there is so much unbelief in the world (though that is a major cause), but also because there must be the proper training involved, and not all Christians are called by God for this service. Whatever your role in the body of Christ trust in Christ and in His forgiveness and salvation. That is all that really matters. That is who Christ is.

Doing the Right Thing is Not Enough

Newsletter article for February 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Saul was the first King of Israel, but he was also the last one of his family to be a king. If you recall the Bible story God became displeased with Saul and chose the boy David to succeed Saul as King of Israel. Do you remember what Saul did to displease God? If we think we are pleasing God by what we are doing then we ought to consider King Saul and try to avoid the trap that he fell into.

There are actually a couple of events in I Samuel 13-15 that are significant, but it is the first one I want to recall here. What Saul did which led God to look for the next king outside of Saul’s sons, was to offer a burnt offering to God. Now, if you know anything about Old Testament history and worship practices this doesn’t seem such a bad thing at all. It doesn’t seem like Saul was worshipping a false God. People made burnt offerings to God all the time. Many of these were actually required by law and the Bible records many more rebukes for those who did not make an offering to God, than for those who did, but Saul is one exception.

The situation was that the Philistines were gathering to attack the Israelites and Saul and the soldiers of Israel were looking to get some encouragement and strength from God through His prophet, Samuel. Samuel told Saul to meet him in seven days time at Gilgal where Samuel would offer sacrifices to God and ask the Lord to give them success against their enemies. On the seventh day Samuel was nowhere to be found and the soldiers began to lose heart and to scatter off to someplace safe before the Philistines attacked. When Saul saw his men leaving he thought that he needed to do something to keep the men together so he offered the sacrifice himself and did not wait any longer for Samuel. But just when Saul had finished making the offering Samuel arrived and was greatly displeased with Saul’s impatience. He proclaimed that because he did not keep God’s command his kingdom would not endure and God would seek a man after His own heart to lead His people.

This may seem to us to be a little harsh, but as in all the things God does it is completely appropriate. There are a couple things wrong with Saul’s actions. First, although it was a good thing for Saul to prepare to make a sacrificial offering to God, it was inappropriate for him to actually make the sacrifice. This was the role of the priest, or in this case, the prophet, Samuel. In and of itself, this probably would not have brought down such a severe rebuke from God, but the second incident in I Samuel 15 shows that the first simply revealed a greater lack of faith in God. Although Saul seemed to be making an offering to God, he really wasn’t. God’s instructions through the prophet Samuel told him to wait, and Saul did not. With his men leaving Saul decided that he couldn’t wait for God to give the men encouragement, so he did it himself. This was idolatry. Saul put himself in the place of God.

It wasn’t Saul’s actions which were so wicked (although he certainly disobeyed God), but his lack of faith in God made his sin inexcusable. Compare this with the worst sins of David, Saul’s successor. David committed adultery with the wife of one of his best soldiers. He tried to cover up the sin, and when that failed he had the woman’s husband murdered. This was nearly as great a rejection of God as Saul’s sin, and a much greater sin against others (Uriah and Bathsheba), yet David didn’t lose faith in God. There were some tragic and lingering consequences to David’s sins, but he was forgiven. There were twenty-one of David’s descendants who ruled as king from Solomon to Zedekiah, but Saul’s family died out with his great-grandchildren, and few of them enjoyed a long life.

I am sure that to many people this seems a bit backward. To our earthly eyes the sins of adultery and murder are virtually unforgivable, while the sins of impatience and improper worship seem relatively inconsequential, but then we often place our own concerns above God’s concerns. Such is the way of all sinful flesh. God looks at things a little differently. First of all the sins against God (first table of the commandments) are much worse than our sins against others (second table) for the simple fact that God is GOD, and everyone else is not. But God also can see into people’s hearts. God knows who has faith in Him and who hates Him. For those who have faith (like David) God can forgive the worst sins (adultery, lies, conspiracy, murder, misuse of authority, etc.), but for those who do not have faith (like Saul) even the seemingly good things he does (worshipping God, having compassion on an enemy, etc.) are unforgivable.

Judas also did a good work in the garden of Gethsemane when he kissed Jesus. Psalm 2 tells us, “Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way.” Kissing is a sign of affection, and how can that be wrong when we show affection to our Lord? But Judas did not kiss Jesus to show affection, instead he used it as a sign to Jesus’ enemies so they could come and arrest him. What should have been a good work Judas turned into an opportunity for the enemies of Jesus to grab him so they could kill him. Judas lacked faith in Jesus, and so despite any good that he had done, he despaired of his life and took a shortcut to destruction despite the fact that his salvation was so near.

There are those who would tell you that if your worship is not full of feeling you should work harder to make it so, but this was Saul’s wrong solution to the problem. It is the wrong solution because the fact that you make yourself feel happy or excited about something doesn’t make it God-pleasing. Saul and his soldiers were quite satisfied with his solution to restore morale to the soldiers, but God was angry about it. You can do all sorts of things to make yourself feel good about your sins, but this is only a temporary distraction and not a proper way to deal with sin. People do it all the time. The devil encourages it, because as long as people feel good about their sins without truly repenting, they are lost and belong to him. God doesn’t necessarily want you to feel good, and He never wants you to feel good about sin. God wants you to recognize your sin, come to true (i.e. painful) repentance, and be saved.

You cannot measure your faith by your good works. If you could then Saul might have been a more righteous person than David. But God looks at us according to our faith in Him. Jesus Himself was praised as the Son of David for more than just the fact that David was His ancestor. Jesus came to rescue us from the sinful self-centeredness which makes all our good deeds tainted by wickedness. Only Jesus can sanctify us and make us holy. Only Jesus can give us hope and peace and satisfaction, and none of this comes from ourselves. If our happiness, peace, hope, or general good feelings come from within us then they cannot save us, and like King Saul they will likely turn us against God and lead us to our destruction.

Chaos in Christendom

Newsletter article for December 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

It has been said that chaos begets chaos. Forgive me for not knowing the source of that saying, but it is often true. When all the structures that keep our lives in order have vanished then our sinful nature sees an opportunity to exert itself and unless one possesses a good amount of self control then we only add to the chaos. Lutheran doctrine teaches that the first use of the Law is that our sinful nature is kept in check by the threat of punishment. We don’t wish to be punished, so we don’t do what is wrong. This is obviously not the same as doing right, but it keeps things relatively safe and orderly in a world where few people even care to obey God. An example of this self-perpetuating chaos is when those who enforce the law are rendered incapable, such as during times of war or other great disaster. The ongoing quagmire in Iraq is an example of this. Chaos can also erupt during power outages, and I think we can all be thankful to God that during this summer’s massive blackout that there were relatively few instances of looting and thievery. There were some reported examples of these, but compared to the scale of the blackout it could have been much worse.

I bring this up only as a general example of how lawlessness brings about more lawlessness and chaos. There seems to be a growing chaos in the church. Now when I say the “church” I mean what used to be called “Christendom” or the visible church on earth. Among the True Church, that is all the believers in Christ throughout the world, things are as good as they always have been because the believers in Christ live by faith, and not by sight, and we know that Christ is Lord of all and has everything in control, even when everything seems to be spinning out of control.

Yet, it is still disturbing to read reports of apostasy and growing division within Christian denominations. The hearts of Christians throughout the world must hurt for our brothers and sisters who are affected by public denials of the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. We have been hearing a lot lately about a growing rift in the Episcopal Church over Sixth Commandment (marriage and sexuality) issues. These reports hit close to home for Lutherans for at least two reasons. First, the news reports say that if there is a denominational split then it would be the biggest since the LCMS lost about 100,000 members in the early 1970s. And second, regardless of what happens among the Episcopal Churches, it would seem that the LCMS is threatening to soon follow.

It is true that the issues are quite different on the surface, but underneath the root causes are the same. Actually all division and false teachings and chaos in the church has a similar cause, and that is the sinfulness and unbelief of some who call themselves “Christians,” but we can go further than that to note that underlying a lot of controversy in Christian churches worldwide is a lack of trust in, and obedience to, God’s Word. Among the Episcopal leaders who approved the appointment of a bishop who is an avowed practicing homosexual, they could only have done this if they denied the clear teaching of God that such things are “detestable.” Now this wouldn’t concern us too much unless chaos begets chaos. When unbelievers and heretics see others getting away with such sins then they are emboldened and then try to do something similar where they can.

“God tempts no one to sin, but we pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.” In this way, Martin Luther explains the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer in his Small Catechism. The thing about temptation is that it is most effective when you don’t realize it is happening to you. Temptation to sin is always dangerous, and we all have our weaknesses where we sometimes fall into sin even when we know we shouldn’t, but we are most vulnerable when we don’t realize that what we are doing is a sin.

The devil can be sneaky. St. Peter compares him to a lion prowling around seeking for someone to devour. If you don’t know the lion is there then you are easy prey. That is why in my catechism and membership classes I devote quite a bit of time to teaching the ten commandments. In tempting us, Satan tries to get us to believe that sin is somehow desirable. If he can get us to think that committing a sin is somehow a “good” thing to our eyes then he has won, and we have lost. If we want to sin then the devil doesn’t have to do anything to get us to sin, which he can’t do anyway because God has mercifully limited his powers, but because of our sinful nature we are only too ready to cooperate to our own downfall. The phrase, “the devil made me do it” is just a cop-out and is completely untrue. All the devil can do is lie to you. If you believe him it is your own fault. Our trouble with temptation is that we all too often believe the lies of Satan and fall into temptation and sin.

We are not without defense against temptation, however. God has given us a powerful weapon against sin and temptation and the devil. That weapon is the Holy Scriptures. The power of the Holy Bible to work against Satan is the power of God because the Bible is God’s Word. Since the Bible is God’s Word the more we know the Bible the more we know God, and the more we know and love God the better we can recognize and resist the work of the devil because Satan is always opposed to God even when he pretends not to be.

The trouble nowadays is that most people don’t know or don’t believe in the Scriptures and because of this they have no chance against the temptations of Satan. This is even a problem in the church. This is no more clearly illustrated than in the recent controversy in the Episcopal Church where they have ignored the clear teachings of Holy Scripture and have elevated an openly homosexual priest to a position of leadership as bishop in the church. In this controversy there is no shortage of faithful Christian Episcopals (and others) who have given a true Christian witness to the sinfulness of this action, and yet the Episcopal church has proceeded. Their justification of this disgrace is in the interest of diversity and a kind of “love” which is foreign to God and His holy Word, but which is right at home with the devil.

One local Episcopal priest wrote a column for the Detroit Free Press recently in which he wrote that this situation was an “embarrassment.” But it was very strange that what embarrassed him was not the fact that his Church had abandoned even the pretense of obedience to God and His good will for us, but instead, he was embarrassed by the faithful Christians who objected to the appointing of this bishop. In the column which was a little shorter than this essay this man denied the authority of God’s Word because it was several thousands of years old; implied that the Old Testament laws were not God’s Word, but the ancient bias of “a priestly cult”; and called St. Paul a “homophobic … mid-First Century AD Pharisaic Jew-turned-militant-Christian” who presumed to “dictate the very will and law of an unseen God.” He also called the Bible a “bin for discarded concepts and notions” and finally he denied that God created the universe in seven days as He said He did.

This is of course an extreme example, but this shows where temptation can lead when it is unchecked by God’s Word and the repentance that comes from the proper preaching of God’s Word. The only way that such an obvious sin can be so vigorously defended by otherwise good people who call themselves “Christian” is if they deny the authority of God in the Bible. If the Bible is not God’s Word then it is probably outdated and unreliable and can be replaced by something else. In the case of the Episcopal Church the Word of God is apparently replaced by something of Satan’s devising. That is the only way that good “Christian” people could defend something that God calls “detestable” and which goes against all Biblical teaching on marriage and sexuality.

Of course my purpose is not to bash the Episcopals. There are plenty of faithful Christian Episcopals. Many of them seem to be in Africa, but wherever they may be (God bless them and give them strength) they are not afraid to speak the truth even though they are condemned by the American liberals as backward and foolish. Such is the lot in life for faithful Christians in an age where sin is seen as a good thing and what is truly good is despised. No, my purpose here is to illustrate the dangers of temptation.

The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod is not yet in danger of following in the footsteps of the Episcopal Church, but with the events of the past couple years we have started to head in that direction. Remember that it begins with a denial of God’s Word as a living and valid authority. When God’s Word doesn’t have authority then God doesn’t have authority in our lives, and we replace His rule with something else. Usually we place ourselves in that place first, doing what is right in our own eyes, but in doing so we open the door to Satan to do what he wants in our lives. Satan doesn’t come to good Christian people and tell them to commit all kinds of disgusting sins such as homosexuality. No one would fall for that. Instead he starts off small and works his way to greater and greater sins until we are far off of the path of God’s righteousness that we can’t remember any longer what it is like to truly be obedient to God. That is the real tragedy of the Episcopal situation. Many of their new bishop’s defenders truly believe that they are doing something that is pleasing to God even though God calls it “detestable.” In our own Church we are alarmed by this year’s resolution of the charges against the Atlantic District President in which the Dispute Resolution Panel ignored the clear teachings of the Scriptures which determined that President Benke was guilty. Instead, they somehow exonerated him by a faulty interpretation of some lesser man-made rules which really should have had no authority in the case. If this is allowed to stand then our own Denomination will fall down the slippery slope toward an end which only God can see. God’s Word gives us our only hope for salvation and rescue from sin and its consequences. Pray that God will keep us faithful and standing firm against the temptations which seek to destroy us.

Martin Luther

Newsletter article for October 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

By the time this newsletter reaches your home you should be able to go to your local movie theater and see the latest movie which depicts the life of the great reformer, Martin Luther. The movie is simply titled, “Luther”. With every new look at the life of Martin Luther we Lutherans have the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with what it means to be Lutheran. However, this does not come without dangers. Not every depiction of the life and teachings of Martin Luther is good and beneficial. Some depictions of Luther’s teachings or the significance of his work are distorted and others simply contain flat-out lies. An example of this was a recent PBS television documentary on Luther. This documentary, while doing a pretty good job of accurately presenting the factual information of Luther’s life, didn’t have a clue about the true significance of Martin Luther. But then of all the scholars who were interviewed in that documentary, none of them were Lutheran, and all of them had some other agenda which led them to misunderstand or purposely distort the meaning of the Reformation.

I would encourage all who read this article to go and see the movie “Luther,” but I would also hope that you would go with open eyes. I have heard good reviews from Lutherans who have previewed the movie, so I am hopeful that it will be an honest look at both the man and his teachings, and I am looking forward to seeing it myself. However, recent events in the church (worldwide) have reminded me of the validity of the doctrine of original sin and have left me wary of trusting in the unquestioned goodness of all that calls itself Lutheran or even Christian. Further examination is always required, but I am always hopeful, and I am eager to be impressed.

It should come as no surprise that there is now a renewed interest in Martin Luther. At the end of the millennium several historians came up with lists of the most influential people in the second millennium since Christ, and Martin Luther was at or near the top in all of these lists. It is also probably true that each list put Luther at the top for different reasons, which begs the question, “What is Luther all about?”

In the past year I have come across a little book which gives the best explanation of what it means to be a Lutheran in modern society. The book is Here We Stand by Hermann Sasse (pronounced SAH-say). There has been a growing rediscovery of Hermann Sasse lately because the issues with which the LCMS is currently struggling are the very same sorts of things that Sasse had to deal with in Germany in the early 20^th century. I myself have been astonished by the current relevance of essays that Sasse wrote some 70 years ago. I suppose I should not have been astonished because it was nearly 3,000 years ago that King Solomon wrote that “There is nothing new under the sun.”

Strangely enough, as we try to understand what it means to be Lutheran we should first of all keep one thing in mind: to be Lutheran has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Martin Luther. The best possible Lutheran cares not one little bit about Martin Luther. Luther himself was not interested in Martin Luther, but rather he was interested in Jesus Christ. Of course as a Christian we cannot ignore Luther because there have been only a precious few people since Biblical times who have taught the truth of the Bible so purely and clearly as he did. To be a Lutheran is all about what the Bible teaches about Jesus Christ, and not at all about who Martin Luther was. However, there are those who seek to undermine the teachings of Luther, and because they cannot find fault with his theology (because he taught the truth of God’s Word) they instead attack or undermine the man.

In Here We Stand, Sasse notes that there are at least three ways in which the Lutheran Reformation is misunderstood, or misrepresented. The first is that Luther is depicted as a great “Hero of the Reformation” who led his followers to a new age of Renaissance. This is a false depiction for several reasons. At the time of the Reformation Luther was, and remained, a pastor, Biblical scholar, and teacher. Sasse notes that early in the history of the reformation Luther “slipped into the background,” and his role after 1530 was “not nearly as important as that which Calvin played to the close of his life.” Luther also never wanted his followers to be known by his name. He preferred the name, “Evangelical” but eventually that term came to apply to others, and the term “Lutheran” stuck. What is more, of the eight confessional documents which make up the Book of Concord, which is what really defines what it means to be Lutheran, only three of them were even written by Martin Luther (the Small and Large catechisms, and the Smalcald Articles), and the Formula of Concord was written some fifteen years after Luther’s death.

The second way the Lutheran Reformation is misrepresented is what Sasse calls the “culture-historical interpretation of the Reformation.” This describes the impact that the reformation had on Western society, and claims that the main importance of Luther is that he began to release the human potential of Europeans from the oppression of the Medieval way of thinking. This is still a popular view in some circles, but anyone with even a limited knowledge of Luther knows that this is way off base. If this were true then Luther would have encouraged the peasants in their revolt rather than vehemently denouncing them. (The peasant revolt is reportedly depicted in the movie, and is one of the main reasons that the movie received a PG-13 rating.) This is the point of view of the PBS documentary which was released this summer. This suggested that Luther began something, but it was incomplete, and left to others to finish. Or to use a sports metaphor, Luther, it is implied, picked up the ball, but others ran with it, and so Luther is seen as incomplete and obsolete. In reality, Luther was not concerned about the advancement of human civilization, instead he was concerned about the salvation of man and taught what the Bible teaches about the complete moral depravity of sinful man which everyone must recognize before they can receive the salvation which only Jesus can give.

The third way the Reformation is misrepresented is that it is seen as essentially a German nationalistic event. There is a grain of truth to this because there was the beginning of a unification of Germany behind Luther. His translation of the Scriptures into German not only was the focus of shared German pride, but it literally created a unified, common German language out of several differing dialects. But again, Luther was not interested in what it meant to be German. He was only interested in what it meant to be a Christian. Lutheran teachings are not culture bound, but universal because God’s Word is universal.

The true meaning of the Reformation is that it is an event in the history of the Christian church. It is all about doctrine, and not about the man. To be Lutheran is to trust that the Holy Scriptures are God’s Word which is the only thing which shows us how we may be saved from our sins.

I hope you will keep this in mind as you go to see the new movie. This is how a movie about Luther should be judged: Is it more about Luther, or more about Christ? Do you come away with more of an admiration of Luther, or is your Christian faith strengthened? It is again strange to say it, but it is true, if the movie is too much about Luther then it doesn’t fairly represent the man. He relentlessly pointed people to Christ for their hope and salvation, and any accurate representation of Luther will do the same. I pray that this is true, and if so then I also pray that this movie also becomes wildly popular in our society.

The Modern Prodigal Son and the Loving Father

Newsletter article for September 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Imagine if the only Bible verse the prodigal son knew or believed was Romans 12:15 where it says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice.” One day the son told his father that he was going out with his friends, and the father said, “Just be home before midnight.” The next day when the father woke up his son still wasn’t home. When the boy finally rolled in at noon with a big smile on his face he embraced his father and said, “Father, don’t be mad. You are going to be happy for me because I am happy. I had the time of my life last night. I spent the night with my friends drinking beer and smoking marijuana and we spent all our money on prostitutes. I have never had as much fun in my whole life and I want you to be happy as I am happy.”

What do you think the father would say to this prodigal son? If he truly loves his son he would never say, “Well, as long as you are happy then go and do as you please.” If he truly loves his son he would rather say, “How can I be happy for you? I told you to come home before midnight so that you wouldn’t get hurt destroying your body with alcohol and drugs, and so that you wouldn’t get infected with syphilis and AIDS and die a horrible prolonged death. Not only did you NOT do the one thing that I told you to do, you did everything I didn’t want you to do. You are grounded forever.”

Obviously the story of the prodigal son that Jesus told in Luke 15 didn’t end this way. In Jesus’ story the young man recognized his sin, repented, and came crawling back humbled to his father to beg for mercy. In return, the father welcomed him back joyfully as his son. In my modern version above, there is no redemption because there is no repentance. Without repentance the sinner will continue to willfully disobey what is good and proper and safe until he destroys himself and those around him also.

This illustrates one of the tasks that we have in our lives as Christians. Our obedience to God is not limited to simply how we live our own lives. We can’t be like Lot living in Sodom (see Genesis 19) thinking that all is well because we are obedient. We sometimes need to be like Jeremiah in Jerusalem (see Jeremiah 19) calling the sinners to repentance. We are to be witnesses to the world in all that we do, but that doesn’t always mean giving a cheerful message of the good news of the Gospel. Consider the prodigal son in my illustration above. If you came to him with a message of God’s love, forgiveness, and eternal salvation he would not pay any attention to you. Concerning love – he would say that it isn’t worth the trouble, and besides he gets more enjoyment out of a bottle of wine anyway. Concerning forgiveness – the prodigal would say that he doesn’t need it because in his mind he isn’t doing anything wrong. Concerning heaven – he would say he doesn’t need heaven because he already has as much fun as he can handle. Before this lawless person can enjoy the benefits of the Gospel he needs to know and understand the law.

Fortunately for him (and for us) God doesn’t immediately “ground us forever.” That remains an option, and He would be well within His rights and power to do so, but God is patient with us. God calls sinners to repent, and He usually gives them a little time to come around and see things His way. That is what we are here for. We are to help sinners to see the error of their ways so that they can appreciate and accept the wonderful message of the Gospel. Once the sinner sees the consequences of his sins then he may be ready to receive forgiveness, and we should always be ready to forgive even the worst sinners.

We live in a world which is increasingly like the prodigal son that I described at the opening of this essay. Our society is increasingly more tolerant of sin and depravity and much less tolerant of righteousness and God’s Law. This makes the task of the Christian much less popular. We will find ourselves tested in our faith much more often. This is not a comfortable place to be, but it is where God wants His faithful people to be for the sake of the heathen. God has given us His Word to prepare us and strengthen us so that we can be where we need to be to lead others to their salvation, but we need to be careful that we do not fall into the temptations which enslave the world.

Lutheran Church Growth

by Carl F. W. Walther (The first president of what later became the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod) The following is from Walther’s 1883 address at the dedication of the new Concordia Seminary building in St. Louis. The full text occurs in Concordia Journal, July 1989 (Vol. 15:3), pp. 222-230.

Newsletter article for August 2003

When our synod, the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio , and Other States, thirty-six years ago met for the first time in the God-blessed city of Chicago , it was a small, despised little band of only twelve poor congregations. The church which in this country still called itself Evangelical - Lutheran lay in utter ruin. The teaching of our church was unknown territory for it. The small number of preachers who still knew something about it and wanted to stick to it were considered people with limited mental capacities, and the hope was that they would soon die out. The Lutheran Confessions were hardly known even by name anymore, and they were considered documents of earlier unenlightened times, now long obsolete. Instead of Luther’s doctrine in this church that called itself Lutheran, the teaching of Zwingli and obvious rationalism was in vogue, coupled with fanatic methods of conversion. Hardly a single preacher had an orderly call into office according to God’s Word; almost all of them were engaged only for one or a few years. Immortal souls were entrusted to unprepared, immature men on a trial basis, while Christian parochial schools were abolished and Lutheran youth were in typically heathen fashion entrusted to an irreligious state. In short, the so-called Lutheran Church of our country was dead at that time, the laughingstock of all the sects, who, like hungry nightingales, came for the funeral.

When our synod at that time came forward with the watchword then unheard of: Gottes Wort und Luthers Lehr vergehet nun und nimmermehr [“God’s Word and Luther’s doctrine pure will now and evermore endure”], it was not only the anti- Christian papacy, not only the united - evangelical community of mixed religions, not only the fanatic sects, but above all the local so-called Lutheran church that would lead to Rome, and with great certainty they predicted an early, inglorious extinction for us, an outlandish growth and un-American intrusion.

And it is true, our prospects were really very dreary. To want to transplant the Old Lutheran church, which submitted to every letter of the Word of God, to this land of untamed love for liberty seemed in real fact to be a completely hopeless, worse than foolish undertaking. But far from letting itself be made to falter, our synod did not ask: What must we do to become large and numerous? But it only asked: What must we do to be found faithful before the Lord of the church? Our synod knew that success was not in its hands. Success is therefore left to God.

And what happened? The very evil plans of our enemies did not materialize for them. When the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod did not preach a new doctrine but proclaimed nothing but what they, the congregations, had learned from Luther’s Small Catechism; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod brought them the greatest message that a preacher can provide, namely the certainty of the grace of God and their salvation; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod were not trying to lord it over them in popish fashion but on the contrary first tried to get them to understand their wonderful Christian freedom and their holy congregational rights; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod did not seek their own temporal advantages but were interested only in immortal souls; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod prefer to suffer hunger and anxiety, prefer to suffer shame, persecution, and exile rather than to depart from “God’s Word and Luther’s doctrine” even in one letter; behold, then one congregation after another joined our synodical union. The mustard seed took root, shot up joyfully, and gradually assumed the stature of a mighty tree, under the shady boughs of which the birds of the air live. The Old Lutheranism, scoffed at because of its original diminutive stature, yes, even laughed to scorn, gradually, among the hot battles in America , became a power so that finally everyone who wanted to be really Lutheran had to get used to the idea of agreeing with the doctrine of our synod. The old treasured books of our church, in the forefront its confessional writings and the works of Luther, were dusted off, carried from house to house, and enthusiastically read and studied by our people. Like a prairie fire that true Lutheran faith and Lutheran life and conduct not only again spread irresistible across the land, but God also granted us unity of faith and a joyfulness of faith together with an intimate brotherly love, so that the days of Luther seemed to have come back among us. Wherever a little Lutheran church grew up like a fruit tree, even on a lonely prairie, there immediately also a little Lutheran schoolhouse grew up like a young shoot. The old pure songs, full of the power of faith and excitement of love, as they were sung by our fathers, resounded again with their charming old tunes. In short, the true Lutheran Church, for which dirges had already been sung all over the world, revived here of all places, came up out of the grave, and in more than a thousand places in our great union of states planted the victory banner of the pure Gospel. For years already the Macedonian call “Come over to help us” sounds in our ears from all directions. An ever increasing stream of Lutheran immigrants, also those of our German language, is flooding over our land and settling here, so that almost week after week new congregations are founded which to a large extent apply to us for teachers in church and school. And not only within our new fatherland, but even from the land of our forefathers, yes, even from the remotest countries of the earth that well-known call for help comes over to us and profoundly moves our hearts.

Everywhere doors are opened to us for entrance with the joyful news of the free grace of God in Christ for all sinners. Even though hundreds of workers have already been sent out into the great harvest from our institutions, the requests for such workers have on that account not become fewer in time but rather steadily more numerous, so that finally, with saddened hearts we have no longer been about to satisfy most of these requests. And so it finally also came about in this institutional building, that the present number of students, though insufficient, could no longer find room. A larger (Seminary) building became a matter of unavoidable necessity.