This continues from Part 18 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a translation of Franz Pieper's essay on the foundation of the Christian faith ("Das Fundament des christlichen Glaubens"). — Pieper now moves on from his extensive defense of the "Means of Grace" to cover his last "Fundament", the doctrine of Inspiration. My concurrent series "Walther & Scripture" documents the fact that Franz Pieper, not today's LC-MS, is following Walther's teaching on this. This doctrine has been covered extensively and passionately by the Synodical Conference Report of 1886 and in Walther's "Foreword" to Lehre und Wehre in 1886. Now in 1925, almost 40 years later, it is Pieper's turn to carry the torch…
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Text preparation and translation by BackToLuther using DeepL, Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, Yandex Translate. All bold text is Pieper's emphasis. All highlighting, red text, and most text in square brackets [ ] is mine.
The Foundation of the Christian Faith.
[by President Franz Pieper, Concordia Seminary; continued from Part 18 - page 282]
The Deniers of the Inspiration of Scripture and the Foundation of Christian Faith.
It is well known that one of the characteristics of modern theology is that it denies the inspiration of Scripture. In the class of deniers of the inspiration of Scripture belong all theologians who do not want to “identify” Scripture and God's Word, that is, deny that Sacred Scripture is inspired by God to the holy scribes and is therefore God's own infallible Word in all its parts. These theologians, from their position on Scripture, also draw the natural consequence. Just as they reject the inspiration of Scripture, they also reject the view and treatment of Scripture as the only source and norm of Christian doctrine. They rather consider it imperative to flee from the allegedly unreliable Holy Scripture into one's own heart, into the so-called “Christian consciousness” or “experience”, as the only storm-proof castle. [page 283]
They teach a “self-assurance” of the Christian faith. They give instructions to base faith on faith. Thus they completely abandon the foundation of the Christian faith.
Christ, the Lord and Saviour of his Church, declares Holy Scripture the firm and indestructible foundation of the Christian faith. [Eph. 2:20] And He gives this explanation both in relation to the Scriptures of the Old Testament and in relation to the Scriptures of the New Testament. He testifies of Old Testament Scripture that it can not be “broken”. (John 10:35) And he does not do this merely for the purpose of establishing theoretically that a scripture exists in which there is no error or weak point, but has an exceedingly practical purpose. He wants to remind the Jews that they should not judge Him on the basis of their human opinion, but on the basis of Scripture. On the basis of Scripture they should judge and believe that He, the Messenger of God κατ' εξοχήν, “whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world”, does not blaspheme God when he previously said to them: “I am the Son of God”, ὅτι εἶπον Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰμι (John 10:36) Furthermore, Christ testifies of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and to all false foundations of faith sought by men: “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” (Luke 16:29) Even when the Emmaus disciples themselves could not find a Messiah in the one who died on the cross and resurrected from the dead, Christ leads them back to the Scriptures of the Old Testament as the right foundation of faith in the words: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:25-27) But also for the Scriptures of the New Testament as the foundation of the Christian faith, we have Christ's testimony when He teaches us in His high priestly prayer that all people who come to faith until the Last Day, “shall believe on me through their”—that is, His Apostles’— “Word”. (John 17:20) According to Christ's further teaching, the Apostles’ word is not their own human word, but God's or Christ's Word. (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21; 1 Pet. 1:10-12; Acts 28:25) As the prophets of the Old Testament did not speak and write their own word, but that of God or the Holy Spirit or the word of Christ, so Christ also declares with reference to his Apostles of the New Testament: “I have given them thy word.” (John 17:14) And the apostles were very clearly aware of the fact that they were not speaking their own word, but the Word of Christ.
[page 284] Paul reminds the Corinthians not only that Christ speaks through him, δοκιμὴν ζητεῖτε τοῦ ἐν ἐμοὶ λαλοῦντος Χριστοῦ, (2 Cor. 13:3) but also declares every teacher who does not remain with the saving Words of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul speaks them and communicates them in writing, (1 Cor. 14:37) to be an ignorant person who is subject to being puffed up (τετύφωται), [1 Tim. 6:4] who is sick in the hospital of questions and disputes (νοσῶν περὶ ζητήσεις καὶ λογομαχίας), (1 Tim. 6:3 ff.) who is not to be accepted and tolerated by the Christian congregations as a teacher, but is to be avoided as one who causes divisions and offenses in the church. (Rom. 16:17) Indeed, Paul goes so far as to pronounce the curse on all those who teach the Gospel differently from him. (Gal.1:8-9) The Apostle teaches that the entire Scripture of the Old and New Testaments is the only foundation of the Christian faith when he speaks of the Christian Church to the Last Day: “Built upon the foundation (θεμέλιον) of the apostles and prophets”. (Eph. 2:20) The Papists want to make a break here by dividing the word of the apostle into the word of the apostle handed down orally (tradition) and the word of the apostle recorded in writing. But the Apostles themselves expressly reject this division. They do this in a twofold way.
Pieper clearly refutes teachers at Concordia Seminary today, e.g. former Prof. J. Kloha, who claim that the New Testament only claims the Old Testament as "God-breathed" or inspired, not itself. It is comforting to be reminded again of Jesus's High Priestly Prayer that teaches "their Word", the Apostles’ Word, shall work faith for all people, and that it is not a human Word, but Christ's Word. So why would so-called "Lutheran" teachers want to cause doubt for Christians? — In the next Part 20, Pieper issues the great warning against those who deny, or subtly question, the Inspiration and full Divinity of Holy Scripture. — But also concurrent to this segment of Pieper is Part 2 of my "Walther & Scripture" series.
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