WIC3b: "Reconciliation…" essay concluded; new translation

      This continues from Part WIC3a (Table of Contents in Part WIC1) in a series presenting a new translation of all of Franz Pieper's essays previously translated in the 1933 CPH book What Is Christianity? And Other Essays. — This post presents the balance of various quotes from one of Franz Pieper's most notable convention essays: "The Reconciliation of Man With God". 

Notable Quotes: (comments in red)

- - - - - - -> The following are 6 objections followed by Pieper's responses:

Objection #1: 

329: "Christ's actions and suffering is completely unnecessary"

329: "All who wish to set aside Christ's atoning sacrifice are outside the Christian Church."

Objection #2:

330: "unworthy conception of God to portray him as so angry with sinners"

330: "But God's revelation in His Word is first of all that God is angry with sinners."

Objection #3:

330: "…God revealed his love for mankind. Therefore, there can be no question of reconciling God's wrath through the death of Christ"

330: "According to Scripture, both the love and the wrath of God are revealed in the mission and death of Christ."

Objection #4:

331: "It would be unjust of God to allow the innocent Christ to be cursed and punished instead of guilty people."

331: "on the one hand, God has imputed our, man's, guilt to Christ… and on the other hand, God made the innocent Christ suffer for us guilty people"

332: "We only keep solid ground under our feet if we refer to God's Word alone for the justice of divine action in the substitution of Christ."

Objection #5:

332: "Christ actually did not suffer what men should have suffered, and therefore one cannot speak of a vicarious satisfaction."

332: "According to Gal. 4:4-5, Christ fulfilled the law given to man"

Objection #6:

332: "Christ's vicarious satisfaction is too "juridical" and not "ethical" (moral) enough"

333: "According to Holy Scripture, the reconciliation of the world took place in a thoroughly juridical way"

333: "Juridical is the transfer of our guilt and punishment to Christ"

- - - - - - - - 

334: "all critics are put to shame by their human substitutes for divine reconciliation"

353: "a perfect reconciliation. …an objective reconciliation."

353: "Only those who believe the gospel will share in the salvation acquired by Christ."

354: "At the time of the Reformation, it was the so-called humanists, the admirers of pagan education, who granted salvation to pagans"

355: "we in turn are fully partakers of reconciliation as soon as faith lights up in our hearts."

355: "faith is the only means by which we can be reconciled with God…only the Missourians and the Saxon Free Church still hold to "the strict orthodoxy of the Old Lutherans".

356: "All Christians, even those in the heterodox fellowships, believe this doctrine of reconciliation"

357: "The gospel has a very strange characteristic. It creates its own recognition…"

358: "The world that still exists is only the scaffolding for the building of the Christian church."

359: "The world sees us Christians as a minor matter, but basically we, … are the center of the universe."

      Now I present the updated version of one of Pieper's greatest essays. Hyperlinks added for reference and navigation. Pieper's emphasis of wording is retained, unlike the previous translation. Quotes from Luther have been cross-referenced to the American Edition where possible:

Downloadable, unhighlighted print file version here; German text file here.

      May Dr. Franz Pieper's essay provide instruction, comfort and strength for the reader's faith (and mine), and provide the tools to fend off all false teaching concerning the "Reconciliation of Man with God"! Amen! — In the next Part WIC4a we begin the lengthy essay on the "Layman's Movement".