Fick 12: editor; Civil War solace; Monkey Religion (Evolution and Monkey Trial)

      This continues from Part 11 (Table of Contents in Part 1), publishing an English translation of C.F.W. Walther's biography of Pastor C.J. Hermann Fick. —

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      Fick now moves to a much smaller congregation (Collinsville, Ill.) for health reasons. The American Civil War breaks out, but you won't find a history of this War from Walther or Fick – only their counsel for Christians during this time of great distress.  Fick then enters a defense against a strange teaching that would surely never catch on... the notion of “evolution”, surely an idea that will have long been forgotten by now… our intelligent, modern world would never carry on with this ridiculous idea… would it? — We join our Fick en route back to America after convalescing in Germany.

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This translation by BackToLuther (BTL), taken from Der Lutheraner, Vol. 42, Nos. 14 (July 15, 1886) to 18 (September 15, 1886). All underlining is emphasis from original. All highlighting by BTL. — This portion:– vol. 42, #18, p. 137-138.

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In Memory of Our Unforgettable Fick.

(by C.F.W. Walther; Part 12, cont'd from Part 11)

On June 3, 1859, he began his return journey to America, where he arrived safely with his family on July 16 that year. He went first to Detroit to greet his congregation there; but both he and the congregation realized that the further care of a congregation as large as the Detroit one would soon destroy him. When, shortly thereafter, a call arrived for the much smaller congregation at Collinsville, Ill. (Madison Co.), about 12 miles from St. Louis, Mo., he gladly accepted it and entered his new office there on September 11, 1859.

Here he worked with rich blessings for 13 years, dearly loved and highly honored by his congregation of many experienced, knowledgeable Lutheran Christians. He was persuaded to take over the editorship of the Abendschule [“Evening School”; see also here], a newspaper compiled for Christians “for entertainment and instruction,” founded in 1854.  This was handled with all diligence and highest fidelity from August 15, 1860, a time for difficult work since at that time the Civil War broke out, until the year 1868. Because of this, it became obvious that his participation in our synodical journals during this period became less plentiful. But the tireless man also made some very valuable contributions to Der Lutheraner during this time. In 1864 in which was that dreadful time of [Civil] war emergency, was also the time that Fick issued a little book entitled:

[page 137, col. 3] “Lift Up Your Heads! Consolation and Arousing Songs for Christians in This Last Troubled Time.” [Google Books: Hebet eure Häupter auf!; see also DL vol 22, (Oct. 1, 1865), p. 17 reprint of a portion]  In Der Lutheraner of July 15, 1864, on this booklet containing 22 songs in 64 pages, we were able among other things to report: “It is true that the songs of our dear friend and brother, Pastor Fick, need no recommendation; for the readers of the Der Lutheraner; the former has already sung so many splendid songs to the latter that they expect nothing but delicacy from him. But we have to say that in the songs of the present collection our dear Fick has surpassed himself. They are a fulfillment of the Word of Christ: ‘He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ (John 7:38); but they are also a proof that our dear Lutheran Church still rightly bears the name of the 'singing church' because it has never before preached the blessed Gospel to countless hearts, but has also sung it with sweet songs.

Of particular value to the present collection is the fact that the songs form a whole, all aiming to put Christians in the right mood in this ‘last troubled time’. And indeed these are for those who are now in danger of falling into spiritual sleep, to awaken them with the blaring of trumpets;  to refresh those who are now seized with fear and hesitation, through the sweet sounds of heavenly consolations, to rise above the miseries of that time [Civil War], and to fulfill them with the most blessed hope of the approaching perfect redemption.

“You, dear Christians, who carry your concern to be engulfed in the general flood of the ruin of these last days and to perish in it, and in which now comes many hours when the heart would also languish, ‘as in the summer there is drought’, to you therefore, we recommend the above-mentioned dear booklet: ‘Lift up your heads!’most urgently. You will find what you are looking for. Soon the poet will show you, in the light of the divine Word, the vanity of the world, and the horrors of the approaching judgment in a heart-moving and harrowing way. Then he will lead you to flower-filled, quiet places, where the fresh springs of comfort and [page 138, col. 1] hope, which are locked in the words on the rock, open to you, in which you can refresh yourselves.” — At this time, also here in the West of North America, there were those who absolutely wanted to be respected for holding that man was a cultured monkey, and especially sought out the inexperienced youth. Therefore Fick put out a pamphlet in 1872 under the following title:

Darwin
Vogt
Büchner

“The Monkey Religion. A Conversation Held in Arizona, Brought into Elegant Rhymes by a Man., Manville, Arizona. 1817”, [see here; no lending library] in which among others Darwin, Vogt and Büchner are introduced. In Der Lutheraner of July 1, 1872, we have announced the writing (comprising 40 pages in small octav) in the following words: “Until recently, people who had not completely lost their reason, conscience and religion, believed that the monkeys were animals.  They were amused by their strange grimaces and jumps, but otherwise they were put into a class with dogs, cats and pigs, and believed that as a human being they were infinitely sublime over the monkeys. —

However, now this should change. The monkey man Vogt [Affenvogt - a play on Karl Vogt’s name] has made the astonishing discovery that the monkeys are a very special animal, because people [“the Negro was related to the ape”] were descended from them.

And [Ludwig] Büchner happily agreed with him, claiming in his notorious book, Kraft und Stoff [‘Strength and Substance’]:  Man is nothing more than a highly organized animal. [Charles] Darwin also seeks to prove the same in a thick-bodied book, which appeared in the last years. There is now great jubilation among the god-deniers, who rejoice: if we are children of monkeys, then we are animals, like other livestock, and need as little religion as the dogs and cats. — The above-mentioned booklet [of Fick] contains a conversation by some honest Germans in which it is proved that the whole monkey religion of the monkey philosophers is nothing but dizziness, humbug, and nonsense, which is why no man who is still in possession of his sound reason could accept it. Since it is not lacking in ridiculous scenes, by which the foolishness of monkey children is exposed, so the whole is not only instructive, but also very funny to read.” [BTL: Unfortunately I was unable to obtain a copy of this book.]

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      Walther uses the name “Affenvogt” (or “monkey man Vogt”) for the German evolutionist Karl Vogt.  For all those Christians who would follow the Theory of Evolution, I would remind them that Karl Vogt specifically taught that the black man, “the Negro was related to the ape”. Also, quite by accident I ran across this same term “Affen-Vogt” in Walther's 1872 essay “On the Doctrine of Justification” - Part 12, where he names Mr. Vogt as perhaps one of the most atheistic scientists of his day, and yet Vogt too was redeemed by Christ.

      Long before the “Creationism” movements of the 20th century, long before the Scopes “Monkey Trial” and William Jennings Bryan's notoriety, long before the so-called Fundamentalists were started, before the “Princetonians” entered the battle, Walther and Hermann Fick and the old (German) Missouri Synod were giving a stronger defense against Evolution than any of these later movements, writing satire and ridiculing the absurd, blasphemous teaching.  Even Ken Ham's wonderful defense of Creation today is only weakly following what the true Lutheran Church has always taught and defended. In 1925, just after the Scopes “Monkey” Trial in Dayton, Tennessee had ended, Franz Pieper commented in Lehre und Wehre (p. 302, German), my emphasis in bold:

By no means is everything clear. Does not the Dayton Trial add to the realization that Christian children do not belong in the state schools at all! We can not turn state schools into Christian schools, we can twist and turn as we like.  F. P.

I went to public schools because there was no Lutheran school available in our area.  Neither did my parents consider "home-schooling". I had to be taught by a biology teacher (in a rural school!) about evolution as if it were the only truth.  By the 1940s and 1950s, LC-MS had so poisoned the world with its syncretistic equivocation on Christian doctrine, that there was no longer the emphasis among “Missouri Synod Lutherans” to have their own church schools for their children. Dear God! how I remember the distress of this.  O that that Lutheran parents would wake up to Franz Pieper's warnings to them, would to God! —  In the next Part 13…
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Note: I have compiled all of Franz Pieper's German language comments on the Scopes "Monkey" Trial of 1925 (or “Dayton-Prozeß”) in the 1925 Lehre und Wehre and am publishing it below in the “Read more »” section. One may use Google Translate or another free translator for a most interesting read on one of the most famous court cases in the history of man.  
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"A history of our youth education" - from 1929

     To build on the previous posts regarding congregational schools, I am presenting a short article from the 1929 issue of Lehre und Wehre (Doctrine and Defense) that Franz Pieper published about the important subject of "youth education".  This is nearly 40 years after Pieper so eloquently had written about the importance of congregation schools... and this article was just 2 years before his death.  The article was in Lehre und Wehre volume 75, September 1929, pages 282-284.
     There is a question on terminology that some older German Lutherans could probably answer better than I.  It has to do with the term "Hochschule" or literally "high school".  Some translations render this "college" or even "university", but I think by this article it actually means what we now call "high school" or grades 9 through 12.  My father was a farmer and only had an eighth grade education.  All his children had at least some education from universities.
     Pieper makes extensive use of an article from a Missouri Synod pastor in Nebraska, again in 1929:

From the Synod.  We share parts of the following historical overview of our youth education that is found in the "Southern Nebraska District Messenger":

"While twenty years ago [~1909] it was the exception that our children attended high schools [Hochschulen] and other higher educational establishments, today it has become almost the rule.  After the children have completed the eighth grade in the congregational school, they attend high school.  Admittedly, the children still remain in their parents' home during these years. They go to church, to Holy Communion, to Bible class [respective to Christian doctrine], belong to the youth association and to the singing choir.  There they still remain under the sound of the Word of God.  However, do we parents and pastors not notice with affliction that the idea of evolution is inculcated into our children already in high school?  But God's Word proves to be powerful and after a few years our children, along with many others, forget the idea of ​​evolution that they have learned in high school and again believe that God created the world as it is in the Bible.  But what if our children have graduated from high school? Then some want to yet continue studying, and so they come to the university.  Our church members have come into a prosperity that they can afford to let some of their children partake in a university education.  Thousands of young people in our congregations are now attending colleges and universities in our country each year.  Here in our State of Nebraska alone, there are 150 young people in our congregations who attend the university in Lincoln.  Truly, a very good number!  Now have small-town high schools begun to undermine the faith of our children, so it is even more true in the case of the University.  The children sit at the feet of such teachers who have earned a doctoral degree in their field.  Here are the clever ones of the world and the worldly wise, but also the unbelievers.  Yes, doubts, unbelief (page 283) and modernism are at home.  Here not only is the following said to our children:

'No educated person believes in our day the creation account as it appears in the Bible; only people with low education believe that; distinguished people today believe in evolutionism',

but such debates are still the least because our children are told this:

'The belief that the Bible is God's Word is plain nonsense.  It is nothing but a collection of human writings.  It contains probably some truth, but also a lot of myth and superstition.  That Christ, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary is a true man, that he willingly went to his death for our sins and on the third day was raised for our justification, which simple people have well believed for centuries, but that in the modern twentieth century educated people no longer believe.  Such a God is far too cruel for modern man. You want to be really educated people!  Then you cannot take everything at face value what the pastors preach to you.'

"What I say here is truly not exaggerated. This is the spirit which rules where our children have to study four years and even longer if they want to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, etc.  These children do not live in the parental home any more, but among wild strangers, unbelievers.  Is it then a surprise that one complains about the fact that our children, after they have attended such a school, do not any more want to go to church and to holy Communion and are lost for the kingdom of God?  – What now should we parents say to this?  Can we watch quietly, without doing anything for our children?  Are these then not our children?  Are they not as dear to us at the age of 18 to 20 years as at the age of from 8 to 10?  Does this not suggest to us on this occasion the truth of this proverb: Small children, small worries; big children, big worries?  Does it not matter to us as a church that the devil now wins our children, whom we have brought up with some trouble and worry, in droves for the kingdom of unbelief and worldly wisdom?  To overcome this loss, now for several years our church has set up the office of university pastor.  We pastors are now to address the specific difficulties that face the children of our congregations, and especially in these dangerous times bring them close to the Word of God so that they are preserved for the kingdom of our Saviour.  Yes, it is the nature of our work that through private interviews, Bible classes and exhortations for  attendance to church and to participation in the Holy Supper to keep the precious youth of our church for the kingdom of heaven."

We share the following announcement from Valparaiso University:

"The fall semester at Valparaiso University will open Thursday, September 19. The University comprises a College of Liberal Arts (accredited by the North Central Association), a College of Pharmacy (accredited by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy), and a School for Law (accredited by the American Bar Association). The College of Liberal Arts maintains fourteen departments, with offerings as follows: Biology, Botany, Zoology, Business Management, Chemistry, Education, Psychology, Engineering (Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical), Industrial Arts, English Language and Literature, Fine Arts (Art and Music), Foreign Languages (page 284) and Literatures, Geology, Health and Physical Education, Home Economics, Mathematics, Physics, Religion, Philosophy, and Social Sciences (History, Economics, Political Science, Sociology)."

Whoever desires more notifications apply to The Registrar,Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Ind.    F.P.

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Dear God!... this has been a most heart-wrenching article to translate!  How I had to get up and walk around awhile... how the tears flow!  Dear God, you are a witness to these tears!  Have mercy on us!  Do not forget us... we need thy Word to guide us.  We need teachers who teach the true Christian doctrine to our children... and to us!

Who are you dear reader?  Are you a youth, a parent, a grandparent?

• If a youth, can you not confirm what the Nebraska pastor said about your teachers in the public schools and universities?
• If a parent, can you not confirm your anxiety for your children to be taught rightly?
• If a grandparent, can you not confirm from your past or your parent's past that the situation was as the pastor reported?

Ken Ham speaks of the youth being "already gone", already gone in the sense that even while the youth are still in their parents' home, they are already doubting their Christian faith, even have completely thrown it off.  And where does this doubt spring from?  It is more than the false teaching of evolution, it is more than the "scientific" teaching that refutes the centrality of our Earth among the planets, it is this:  the Doctrine of Justification, as the dear pastor from Nebraska so beautifully spoke (and Franz Pieper happily repeats).

The reader will note that although the old (German) Missouri Synod highly valued a good education for its youth, yet they valued more highly the teaching of Christian doctrine, Bible teaching.  This mirrors Luther's thoughts on education.  And so when "Christian education" drops its Christian nature, it ceases to be Christian education and in fact becomes anti-Christian.  And even more, when "education" teaches against Christianity, against Bible teachings, then it ceases to be any education at all.  So much for a "good education".

And you, Valparaiso University, although Franz Pieper gave you column space and a blessing by listing your schools of learning, yet it was without comment.  Could it be that even he was not certain that your founder, W.H.T. Dau, could keep your institution on the true Lutheran path?  Could it be that he was not so sure that your inclusion of the subjects of "Psychology" and "Sociology" could be taught from a Christian perspective, from the perspective of the Bible?  You should stop calling yourself "Lutheran" and "Christian" and only call yourself a public university.  Stop being worse than a public university with your pretense of "Christianity" for you teach the very thing warned against in this article – evolution.  You fight against Christianity, you destroy what Christian faith your students might have!

Dear Christians, even the unbelievers know to "Teach Your Children Well"... so must you!  Teach them first and foremost what the pastor from Nebraska spoke of... exactly what the unbelievers scoff at.  It is a matter of spiritual life and death!

Pieper - Historical Theology - "What Einstein does not know"

Pieper was a contemporary of Albert Einstein and commented on a speech he gave.  Pieper's comments are found in Concordia Theological Monthly, January 1931, pgs 69-70.  Translations from the German language portion are largely from Google Translate:

What Einstein does not know about he gave himself distinctly in an Associated Press report, dated Berlin, 15 November 1930:

"Dr. Albert Einstein, originator of the relativity theory, lectured on the laws of cause and effect last night before a crowd of young (page 70) radicals in Humboldt Hall. He encouraged his audience to ask questions and not to imagine they were foolish questions. 'For before God we are relatively all equally wise or – equally foolish,' he remarked. He touched on the metaphysical and psychological aspects of causation, beginning with the ideas of primitive peoples, who are able to conceive only an 'animistic will cause'; who, in other words, believe all happenings are directly caused by a thinking agency, human, divine, or demoniacal. He said he saw nothing to prove that the world was 'causal.' As to the 'first cause,' he said, he couldn't even now tell which came first, the hen or the egg. Determinism, which lays down that everything that happens is due to the law of necessity, Einstein said, 'is belief, not knowledge.' Physicists no longer believe in strict determinism, he added. Mankind, he said, has not gone very far in knowledge. 'The farther we proceed, the more formidable are the riddles facing us,' he asserted. He said the ultimate issues were beyond man's ken."

The talk is modest. And this modesty is in order. There is a "metaphysical problem". It will remain true that no created spirit penetrates into the interior of nature. It was also pointed out recently by naturalists that the mysteries of nature increase as the the tools are sharper with which we observe nature. The reason is this: As God has created all things, he is also the one who receives all things in their being and life and movement, Col.1, 16:17. God is invisible, 1 Tim. 6, 16, so out of reach for the microscope and telescope. Hence, the result that with the increasing sharpness of our observation instruments the riddles increase. But this "modesty" can be carried too far. This happens when it degenerates into agnosticism. The world is "causal" in the sense that it is recognized as made by God if it is looked with understanding (xxxx), Rom. 1, 20: "God's invisible nature, that is, his eternal power and Godhead is clearly seen, so one perceives in the works, namely the creation of the world." As for the famous question of priority, whether the chicken or the egg, or - what is on the same line - whether it was the oak or the acorn first, the Scriptures teach, as is well known, that through God's creative word a complete, fully-trained plant and animal world came into existence. The plants are more likely than their seed, and the animals rather than their offspring. Likewise, man is ready and created fully trained. On the contrary assumption, the whole and the half evolution, prudent scientists even of the modern era admit missing the "filling intermediate link".

Modernists can claim all kinds of answers to Pieper's mention of the "missing link" but it does not change Scripture which clearly does not admit a theory of Evolution.  Pieper is a true judge of Einstein and this issue.