Paul Gerhardt is likely the most favored hymn-writer of the Christian Church. His hymns are used more often by more denominations than any other writer, more than Luther. That is what one source claims. I have not done my own research on this because I hate to wade through piles of Holy-Spirit-drenched praise hymnals to find out.
Below are Gerhardt hymns in the new LCMS hymnal:
- O Lord, How Shall I Meet You
- All My Heart Again Rejoices
- O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is
- Come, Your Hearts and Voices Raising
- A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth
- O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
- Upon the Cross Extended
- Awake, My Heart, with Gladness
- All Christians Who Have Been Baptized
- Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me
- If God Himself Be for Me
- Evening and Morning
- Rejoice, My Heart, Be Glad and Sing
- Entrust Your Days and Burdens
- Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me
- Now Rest beneath Night's Shadow
- I Will Sing My Maker's Praises
The synods falling over each other to celebrate Paul Gerhardt's 400th anniversary should hide away in shame. They should run away from Gerhardt as much as they shun Luther, Chemnitz, and J. Gerhard.
Short Bio
Students of Lutheran doctrine and worship should remember three things about Gerhardt. First of all, he tutored children well into his adult life (age 45), enhancing his ability to communicate with vivid and concrete images. Second, he was resolute in opposing Calvinism, but mild in his overall manner. Calvinists loved his services and his hymns. Nevertheless, he was kicked out of his congreation in Berlin and forced out of the city. The rest of his life was very difficult because he would not compromise his doctrinal standards. Third, he lost all of his children except his son and then lost his wife as well.
Please Stop This at Once!
The Little Sect on the Prairie will celebrate Gerhardt's life with the Bethany lectures. Gaylin Schmeling, STM (Nashotah House) will be one lecturer. Once upon a time, the Bethany lectures were given by known scholars, not by the staff. The other lecturer, Carlos Messerli, seems to be LCMS or ELCA. The information is difficult to track down. All his publishing credits seem to be ELCA. He was connected to the hideous Liberal Book of Weirdness and seems to think it was a good hymnal. That was the first feminist Lutheran hymnal but not as bad as WELS' Charismatic Worship.
Kieschnick's LCMS has a URL devoted to Gerhardt. Have the Missouri pastors noted the irony of this veneration?
The Sausage Factory, also known as Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, noticed Gerhardt as well. And yet the offical WELS line goes like this, "We can learn from Fuller Seminary because we are spoiling the Egyptians."
I ran into this article, which is appropriate, comparing "Elvis" singing leading a church in singing How Great Thou Art to the life and work of Paul Gerhardt. The article suggested the next step in WELS-ELS-LCMS Seeker Services, aka Friendship Sunday.
Why Ignore the Anniversary?
The "conservative" synods are really apostate synods. They are more unionistic than the ruler who deposed Gerhardt. For 30 years the old Synodical Conference--hand in claw with ELCA--has promoted Reformed doctrine, Reformed worship, and the elimination of the Creeds. The Book of Concord is a joke to these people, all the more because they pretend to have some respect for the document.
Why praise Gerhardt when the District Popes fire pastors right and left for being faithful? Pope John the Malefactor (Little Sect on the Prairie) set a record in the percentage of pastors and congregations he defenestrated.
The micro-mini sects are even worse.
Are Any Solutions in Sight?
Doctrinal apostasy is now so obvious that people are taking notice. More men will be kicked out, but the synods will still collapse from their own incompetence and top-heavy costs.
I will brag about two women who decided to spoil the Egyptians on their own. They went to a Reformed bookstore in Grand Rapids and bought the fabulous 8-volume Lenker set of Luther's sermons.
