KFUO's greatest sermon? Pieper's address in 1926

      On this day, January 24, 93 years ago in 1926, Dr. Franz Pieper delivered a radio address on KFUO at 11 PM in the evening.  The sermon was subsequently printed in the February 2 issue of Der Lutheraner.  KFUO had begun broadcasting a little over a year earlier in December 1924.  As far as I am aware, this may be the only radio address sermon printed in Der Lutheraner, at least up to 1934. From DL, vol. 82 (1926), p. 33-34 [EN]. English translation by DeepL, modified. Underlining follows Dr. Pieper's emphasis:

Radio address,

delivered during International Radio Week, January 24 [1926], 11 p.m., by radio station KFUO at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Mo.

To all listeners near and far, grace and peace in Christ, the Savior of the world!

What does every man need in the world? What does every man need in the world above all the other things that exist in the world and that he may desire? If I wanted to answer this question according to my human opinion, it would have no value at all. Other people would express other opinions. A general agreement would be impossible. 

Dear listeners near and far! Among the many millions of books that exist in the world, there is one book of a unique nature. That is the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God. From God's Word I will answer the question of what every man needs above all other things. Briefly summarized, the answer is: Every man, because he is a sinner before God, his Creator and Judge, needs the forgiveness of his sins. Before God's judgment seat, all men without exception stand as sinners. Before the secular court there are two classes of men, civilly respectable and civilly criminal. This is also taught in the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Scripture says Rom. 13 of the secular authorities that they are God's Servant, not to fear good works, but evil. Civil justice has its great value. On it rests the welfare of every civic community or state, and more than on a strong army and fleet. That is why we support all measures that serve civic morality. 

But before God, before God's judgment seat, there are not two but one class of people: sinners. God says very plainly in His Word, "For there is no difference here: they are all sinners, and lack the glory which they ought to have before God." [Rom. 3:23 LED] And again, "There is none righteous, no, not one." [Rom. 3:10] But if it stands thus, all men are sinners before God, then all men also need forgiveness of their sins.

But how do we obtain this forgiveness? The answer that all men give to this question, according to their human point of view, is: by moral improvement of life, or at any rate by works of our own, by works that are suitable to induce God to forgive sins. But this is a great error. God's judgment is otherwise. God judges in His Word, "By the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight." [Rom. 3:20 LED] But how, in what way then is the forgiveness of sins obtained? This is what the Scriptures tell us in the same place where they declare all men without distinction to be sinners before God. For it does not merely say, "There is no distinction here, they are sinners, and lacking the glory which they ought to have in the sight of God," but adds, "And are justified without merit by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. [Rom. 3:24 LED] 

Yes indeed! "through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus". Jesus Christ, the eternal, incarnate Son of God, is a very different Savior than, for example, Confucius, Buddha, and all the invented saviors of men. These all teach men what works they must do to make the Deity gracious to themselves. Because no man is justified before God by the works of the Law, Jesus Christ attacked the matter in a completely different way. He has taken upon His own shoulders the burden that is upon men. He has put Himself in the place of men, has become their substitute before God. He has perfectly fulfilled the divine Law in the place of men, and He has paid on behalf of men all the debt of sin which men had incurred by transgressing the divine Law. The Scriptures testify, "Behold, this is the Lamb of God, which bare the sin of the world." [John 1:29 LED] And we sinners become partakers of the forgiveness of sins purchased by Christ when we humble ourselves before God, recognize ourselves as sinners worthy of condemnation, and at the same time believe in Christ, that is, place our trust before God in the forgiveness of sins which Christ has purchased for us and for all men.

Two things, then, are true. First, it is true that no man can enter heaven without Christ. Christ himself testifies, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me:" [John 14:6 LED] and Christ's apostle John, "He that hath not the Son hath not the Father." [1 John 2:23 LED] Secondly, it is true that this one way to salvation is prepared for all men without exception. I do not personally know all the people who hear me near and far tonight. But I know from God's Word that all to whom I speak are sinners before God. But I also know from God's Word that perfect forgiveness of sins is available to all without exception through the redemption that took place through Christ 1900 years ago. Heaven is wide open to all without exception. Christ invites all without exception through His word to come to Him with trust. He says Matth. 11:28: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" and Joh. 6:37: "Him that cometh unto me I will not cast out" and Joh. 3:16-17: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved." Praise be to Jesus Christ, the faithful Savior of the world! Out of gratitude, let us also serve him faithfully, faithfully serving our neighbor who is in need of our service. For the Saviour saith, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." [Matthew 25:40] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all hearers near and far! Amen.       F. Pieper. [Franz Pieper]

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This sermon demonstrates again how simple Pieper keeps his messages, always focused on God's grace for a sinful world. No long drawn out narrative, no scholarly rhetoric, just Sin and Grace… in Christ. — This sermon may now be added to the meager number of Pieper's sermons that found their way into print.

Pieper's 1902 Reformation sermon (Part 1)

      In 1902, 120 years ago, Dr. Franz Pieper was called on to give the address for a Reformation Festival where all the St. Louis congregations gathered.  When I ran across this sermon that was printed in Der Lutheraner, I had to get it translated to see what those congregations heard from his lips.  I was not disappointed.  I knew then that it would be the perfect content for a Reformation Day blog.  I present it in 2 parts, with the concluding portion to be published on October 31, the actual anniversary date, 505 years after Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door.  From Der Lutheraner vol. 58, pp. 353-355 (Nov. 11, 1902) [EN] (underlining is Pieper's emphasis):

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The very essence of the Reformation.

(Address delivered at a community celebration of the Reformation Festival of St. Louis congregations at the Exposition Building).

Dr. Franz Pieper

Esteemed assembly, dear fellow members in the faith!

The Lutheran congregations of the city of St. Louis have gathered here today to commemorate the Reformation, and it has become my task to briefly describe the essence of the Reformation. To this theme I will adhere.

So I do not want to talk about the fact that with the Reformation a new and better time has dawned also for civil and state life, as is generally conceded outside the Roman camp. I do not want to go into the obvious fact that the countries that have closed themselves off to the Reformation are also behind the countries in which the Reformation has found its way into civil life. Of these things I will not speak, because they belong only to the external consequences of the Reformation. The Reformation itself is essentially an ecclesiastical event. It has to do not with the state, but with the church. It has to do with the question: 

How does sinful man get a gracious God? And the essence of the Reformation is that through it the right Christian answer to this question has again become known in the church, namely, the answer: man obtains God's grace, not through his own works, but through faith in Christ, the Savior of the world.

There is really only One important question in the world for people after they become sinners. The question is the same at all times and among all peoples. All people also deal with this question in one way or another. This is the question: How can I get a gracious God? As long as this question is not answered correctly, no human being can find inner peace.

This question has been answered correctly by Christianity. Christianity, of course, gives an answer that no man has thought of, nor could think of, an answer that has not come into any man's heart, as the apostle Paul says. All human religions, that is, all non-Christian religions, seek God's grace in the way of human works. They instruct men how men themselves can and should make themselves gracious to God by sacrifices, gifts, giving of life, etc. Christianity says no to this! To this Christianity says no! It is not by his own works, whether they be many or few, that man obtains a gracious God, but only through faith in Christ. And why only through faith in Christ? Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, stepped in for man before God. By His deeds and sufferings Christ reconciled men to God, and since God has thus had mercy on men, His unalterable order is this: whoever believes in Christ as his reconciler has a gracious God. This is the teaching of the Old Testament, this is the teaching of the New Testament, this is the teaching of Christianity. And this doctrine satisfies consciences, as the apostle Paul confesses in the name of all believers in Christ: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" [Rom. 5:1] Thus even at the last hour the penitent avenger on the cross satisfied his conscience. So also the astronomer Copernicus became certain of the grace of God, as he himself testifies. Thus must every conscience be satisfied that is to come to rest. That is Christianity! This is Christianity as taught by the prophets and apostles and Christ himself.

But what happened to this teaching in the course of time within external Christianity? It was gradually forgotten and, on the contrary, according to the way of the heathen, the salvation 

from the works of men. The outer Christendom began to walk in the way of the heathen in the main doctrine of Christianity. In Old Testament times, the people of Israel repeatedly fell away from the religion God had given them and turned to the idolatry of the surrounding pagans. So it happened in the New Testament, especially under the papacy, that that which called itself the Christian Church fell away to the heathen, became heathen, in the doctrine of the attainment of the grace of God and of salvation. If any man, whose conscience was awakened, asked in the anguish of his life, "How can I obtain a gracious God?" he was not answered by the official church, "Faith in Jesus Christ," "Christ is the propitiation for our sins," etc., but was then pointed to his own works, to penances, penitentials, pilgrimages, monastic life, and other works of man. This was the deformation, the de-Christianization of the Church under the Papacy. And the result was unspeakable misery of souls, doubt and despair, especially among the serious-minded, for no man can be sure of the grace of God by his own works.

Now how did the Reformation of the Church come about? How could it come to a Reformation of the Church? Of course, even before the Reformation it was noticed that something, yes, much, was not right in the church. There was even talk of a reformation "of head and limbs" which was necessary for the church. Three great councils in the 15th century, the councils of Pisa, Costnitz, and Basle, wanted to reform the church. They achieved nothing, because they did not recognize the actual damage to the church, namely the apostasy from the Gospel. They only wanted to put an end to external abuses. No, no, the Church could only be reformed in such a way that it was called back from the Law to the Gospel, from the pagan-papist doctrine of works to the Christian doctrine of faith in Christ. And how did this happen?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Conclusion follows in Part 2  - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Pieper has set the stage for "the very essence of the Reformation", and Part 2 finishes his stirring account, on Monday, October 31 — not "Halloween", but Reformation Day.

Pieper sermons-1 (“golden apples in silver bowls”)

[2020-01-10: this CTM article by Th. Laetsch was previously translated in 2014 by Pastor Gerhard Grabenhofer of Faith Lutheran in Corning, NY, now the pastor at Faith Lutheran in Sturtevant, WI; 2019-07-27: added note on Th. Laetsch at bottom in red]
      I have been asked in the past why it seems that, although Walther had many books published of his sermons, there were no books published of the sermons of Franz Pieper.  This difference is certainly striking.  Yet both of these men were regular attendees at the conventions of the Synod.  And indeed both delivered sermons at some of these conventions.  Both delivered sermons (or “addresses”) at the "going home" (or death) of their colleagues, as I have published some of these from Pieper.  After I considered the correspondent's question for awhile, I then told him that it seemed that whatever Pieper wrote, it was a sermon... and I let the matter be settled by that.  But the more I consider this, especially after seeing that Pieper delivered many sermons, it appears to me that his Synod was changing even during his lifetime, and that the seeds that would eventually explode into a stupor of false teaching were already sprouting.  And so his Synod, especially the LC-MS, did not see fit to compile his sermons into a published book.
      To partially rectify this situation, I decided to translate the following short essay by Prof. Theodore Laetsch on this subject published after the “home going” of Dr. Franz Pieper in Concordia Theological Monthly, October, 1931.  I believe Laetsch was attempting to hold the line in his Synod, to keep the treasure once won for it by the pure teaching of its founder Walther and maintained by Pieper.

      In his Foreword to the book 1946 The Abiding Word, vol.1, after quoting Prov. 25:11, Laetsch stated, (p. IX):

“In the early literature of our Missouri Synod there is presented in silver receptacles to all that will read a rich selection of choice golden apples worth more than their weight in gold or diamonds. These golden apples were gathered from the Tree of Life, from God’s Holy Word...”

      Unfortunately the Centennial Committee that commissioned this book and editor Laetsch were not as strong in faith and doctrine as the Synod's forebearers.  An example of this from their “Centennial Series” book is the following statement (vol. 1, p. 10):

“...it is immaterial whether we describe the solar system according to the Ptolemaic or the Copernican view.”

This statement in effect allows the teaching of “Copernicanism”, because “Science” has proved it, and directly refutes Joshua 10:13, the Lutheran Church, the Synodical Conference 1886, Luther, Walther and Pieper.  This was part of the essay “The Doctrine of Creation”, delivered by G. Viehweg to the South Nebraska District, 1945.  “Science” was beginning to take over Holy Scripture in Missouri at age 100, its Centennial. The “Missouri Synod” was morphing into today's (English) LC-MS.
      Nevertheless, Laetsch seemed oblivious to the damage this new “Copernican view” would do, and so this anthology series should not be overlooked as teaching Christian doctrine.  It did indeed draw on the “fathers” teaching in many areas. It attempted to bring the teaching from its German language forebearers to the following (post WWII) English language generation (me). And so the following 1931 writing after the “home going” (or passing) of Dr. Pieper, is another good testimony of the longest serving President of Concordia Seminary.  I am splitting it up into 3 parts – the first part is Laetsch's own comments, the other 2 are his reprint of 2 masterful sermons from... The Twentieth Century Luther:

Translation by BackToLuther; highlighting is mine; hyperlinks added for reference. Text extracted from Concordia Theological Monthly, October, 1931, pp. 761-771 (German text here)

Part 1 of 3

Dr. Pieper as Preacher.

[by Prof. Theodore Laetsch]

Dr. Pieper was above all a dogmatist. With rare mastery he dominated the whole rich field of dogmatic theology. With unique clarity and sharpness, he was able to present the true doctrine and to expose and refute the opposing error. He did it in such a bright, clear, simple language that one was almost forced to understand him. He could also have used a different form of representation. Anyone who reads his dogmatic writings will soon realize that he has completely mastered the language of modern theologians, however unclear and pompous they are. He masterfully understood how to undermine the errors and derailments and fallacies that so often hide under the turmoil of language, to strip them of their shell and to present them in their true form. He, who understood the language of modern theology so thoroughly, could have used it as well. But by the grace of God he was prevented from putting his clear, written, theological thoughts into incomprehensible language. As a pupil of Luther, he spoke a generally intelligible language, so that the enjoyment and blessings that one has from the reading of his delightful, content-rich writings are not impaired, hindered, or even rendered impossible by a language that is difficult to understand.

Dr. Pieper was also a preacher by the grace of God. This was mainly because, as in all his writings, so also in each of his sermons he repeatedly drew the attention of his listeners, and always led them, to the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae (the article by which the church stands or falls),

●  the doctrine of the justification of a sinner by grace alone, for the sake of Christ alone, by faith alone,

●  the center around which all his thoughts revolved,

●  the holiest of holies.

The thoughts that he brought forth from the well of the divine Word through diligent research and deep digging [page 762] he then expressed in a form worthy of these thoughts. His whole manner of preaching was clear, full of light, and his language, with all its simplicity, was noble, chaste, and therefore of quite peculiar, often ravishing beauty. Therefore, not only was listening to his sermons, but also reading them is and remains a pleasure in the very meaning of the word.

Dr. Pieper had preached often. He often preached in the beloved pulpit of the Immanuel congregation in St. Louis [see this blog, also this blog on Harrison's visit to this church location], whose auxiliary pastor he had been for years. He also preached abroad on a variety of occasions. But whether he stood before his own or any other congregation, whether he was speaking to large gatherings or to a few listeners, his sermons were always like golden apples in silver bowls. It will be of interest and benefit to our readers when, in the following, we bring you two samples of Pieper’s way of preaching: a church sermon, a beautiful Good Friday meditation, and then a sermon at the inauguration of an institution building in which we preachers are given heartwarming words. T.L.[Theodore Laetsch]

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We see that Laetsch, already in 1931, does justice to the sermons of Dr. Franz Pieper by using the Bible verse Prov. 25:11 to describe them:

“A word, spoken in its time, is like golden apples in silver bowls.” (per Luther Bible 1545)

In the next Part 2, as Laetsch describes, we are given a taste of those “Golden Apples” from “a beautiful Good Friday meditation”.

= = = = = = = = = = TABLE OF CONTENTS = = = = = = = = = = =
Part 1 - This introduction
Part 2a - First sermon, "How to be certain of salvation" (on Luke. 23:39-43)
Part 2b - First sermon, "How comforting this truth is."
Part 3a - Second sermon: Christian education (2 Cor. 5:14); Dr. Dale Meyer disagrees?
Part 3b - Second sermon: Christian worldview
Part 3c - Second sermon, conclusion; warning of scholarship's "danger of becoming proud and arrogant".
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2019-07-27 - added note: Th. Laetsch upheld the old Missouri Synod's teaching on Rom. 16:17 in his Foreword to Concordia Theological Monthly pp. 8-10 here.