ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore the minister of sin? God forbid. Galatians 2:17 KJV
We are indeed justified and made righteous in Christ: for the truth of the Gospel teacheth us that a man is not
justified in the law, but in Christ. Now, if they which are justified in Christ, are yet found sinners, that is, do yet still belong to the law, and are under the law, (as the false apostles teach) then are they not yet justified; for the law accuseth them, and showeth them to be yet sinners, and requireth of them the works of the law, as necessary to their justification... (page 76)
Paul therefore groundeth his argument upon an impossibility, and a sufficient division. If we being justified in Christ, are yet found sinners, and must be justified by another means than Christ, that is the law, then Christ cannot justify us, and it followeth that He died in vain, and these, with other like places, are false.
Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. John 1:29
He that believeth in Him hath everlasting life. John 3:16.
Yes, the whole Scripture is false, which beareth witness that Christ is the Justifier and Savior of the world. For if we be found sinners after that we be justified by Christ, it followeth of necessity, that they which fulfil the law are justified without Christ. If this be true, then are we as Turks, or Jews, or Tartars, professing the name and word of God in outward show, but in deed and verity utterly denying Christ and His Word.
Martin Luther, Kregel, Galatians 2:17, pp. 76f.
***
GJ - This passage in Luther's Galatians Commentary is essential in defeating the UOJ Enthusiasts who make a fetish out of John 1:29, misrepresenting the verse to serve their dogma.
The point made is in harmony with justification by faith versus justification by law - no other alternatives are available. Someone cannot be justified, forgiven and not forgiven, and then justified again, really forgiven.
Note well that Luther is arguing against the Roman Catholic justification scheme, which parallels the UOJ dogma.
In Romanism, Christ died for the sins of the world, and they are forgiven, but they are not paid for until works of love are performed by the person forgiven. This is called fides formata, or faith formed by love. Liberal guilt in the mainline denominations is roughly the same.
In UOJ, the entire world is forgiven and absolved, but not really. Everyone is a guilt-free, forgiven saint - saved, but not quite. There is just one more thing - to agree with this dogma of world absolution. To make a decision for UOJ.
If someone is forgiven and not forgiven in Romanism, then justification is through the law.
If someone is forgiven and not forgiven in UOJ, then justification is through the law.
For one who rails
against plagiarism; and not giving proper citation etc...I hope you got
permission from the publisher to reproduce from the book. It is explicitly
stated so in the beginning...just saying...
***
Theses Opposed to Huberianism: A Defense of the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification [Paperback]
Aegidius Hunnius (1550–1603) was among the “Champions of Lutheran Orthodoxy” who served on the faculty of the University of Wittenberg and was one of the early signers of the Formula of Concord. During his service at Wittenberg, he was also superintendent, and oversaw the visitation of the churches of Saxony, coauthoring the Saxon Visitation Articles (1592). In this work, Hunnius contends with the theology of Samuel Huber (1547–1624), a former Calvinist who was called to the University of Wittenberg in 1592. After arriving in Wittenberg, Huber introduced his own novel terminology and theology which put him at odds with the Formula of Concord and his fellow professors. Huber made the situation worse by accusing his colleagues of Calvinism when they did not assent to his theological opinions. In this book, Hunnius refutes Huber's errors regarding the doctrine of justification; as Hunnius wrote in the dedication to this work, “we propose ... not only to wash away the charges he has made, but especially to refute his shameful errors concerning the eternal election and predestination to eternal life, not only of the children of God, but also of the children of the devil (that is, all the impenitent); similarly, his errors concerning the universal justification of all men—of unbelievers no less than believers; concerning also the regeneration of hypocrites in Baptism, which is said to be conferred on them in that very act of treachery and impiety.”
GJ - Book publishers and writers love reviews, because reviews sell books.
Kregel asked me to review their books, and I get them free for doing so. I just got a Walther book for free, so I can review it for Herman Otten and the translator.
I bought my own Hunnius, Joe. You should buy it and read it some time. Each quotation in the review is carefully cited and marked so readers can discern what was written.
This blog is non-profit, so the Fair Use doctrine applies. I am not trying to copy someone else's work and make money with it.
That is what your pals do--Tim Glende, Paul McCain, and the Changers.
Please do some homework on the topic, Joe. It will prevent you from making false, puerile charges.
Sociologist Peter Berger once commented that if India is the most religious country in the world, and Sweden the least religious, then America is a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes.
Rev. McCain should stop debating with
JBFA people because he does not. All he does is to make comments how evil we
are.
He should stick to his pistols and stay away from theology.
I think he would rather settle the issue of UOJ vs JBFA through a quick
draw.
LPC
***
GJ - Rather than rely on the Scriptures and Confessions, the Watherians provide cover for the original mythology of Saint Ferdinand. Forgotten are all of Ferdy's felonies.
I created a graphic from Luther's Galatians Commentary, below, where he associated the gross immorality of the Catholic Church priesthood with God giving them over to a reprobate mind.
The language comes from Romans.
KJV Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
The Medieval Church was plagued with abuse and scandal, so much that many Catholics today give credit to the Reformation for rescuing the Church from utter collapse. That happened because Luther applied the Word of God to the situation. However, nothing is different in Rome today. Nothing has changed in the American version of the Roman Catholic Church. A string of front-page stories told of sexual abuse in various Roman Catholic diocese in the late 1980s. The stories continue, 25 years later.
Lutherans either say, "Oh, those Catholics," or "Oh, those ELCA people" - "given over to a reprobate mind."
But they all work with each other and study with each other at Fuller Seminary, the great gathering place for all denominations, all religions, all orientations.
People contact me about various kinds abuse. Lutheran church officials routinely bully ministers and congregations. Back in Florida, years ago, the big Church Growth experiment in WELS was so offended by a chance remark (that happened to be true) that they demanded apology after apology, even though they already had the first apology for a correct observation - that they were controversial.
Anyone in Fox Valley can see what happens when an individual dares to point out the obvious about Glende, Parlow, Lillo, Jeske, and the rest. It is a small step to move from the DP writing a paper supporting plagiarsim to the next one defending child abuse. The downhill slide gathers speed at 10 meters per second per second. In other words, the acceleration of degenerate actions can only increase.
In the LCMS, if someone has a genuine case of clergy sexual abuse to report, the response is to attack the individuals trying to address the situation. The "conservative" Lutheran groups use the cover of their supposed sanctity to escape the laws they must obey - such as reporting known abusers. I know of many cases allowed to go on and on, in various synods. ELCA ordained a known predator and lost a $40 million court case.
Synod support and absolution are quickly available for known murderers, felons, drunk drivers, adulterers, and abusers. Those who question Holy Mother Synod will quickly find their cell phone icing over during a talk with the DP, followed by letters from the same - to be handled with asbestos gloves only.
In adopting the anti-Gospel of UOJ--the same dogma exactly as the Ecumenical Church--the Lutherans have united behind a repudiation of the Scriptures. They still say, "Lord, Lord," and "Look at all the buildings we have built to honor Thy Name and Thrivent's and St. Marvin's." But they are reprobate. In wrath, God has done the the most ferocious thing He can do to people - He has turned them loose to follow their evil desires.
Pastors have to defend their calls against the synod, no matter what the consequences. Congregations have to defend their parishes against the meddling and predation of the church officials. If a circuit pastor wants to throw his weight around, give him a business card for Weight Watchers and show him the door. The consequences may seem bad at first, but God uses the consequences for the good, when the Word is taught in its purity.
All depends on our philosophy, or our meaning behind the meaning. If we truly believe that God always accomplishes His will through the Word, we will never hesitate to apply that Word in all situations.
Some claim that they rely on the Word, but they really trust in money. They imagine that money is the Means of Grace. Anyone who interrupts the flow of money gets "Anathema sit!" (Let him be damned to Hell!)
I have seen church officials fawn over adulterous rich men, simply because of the promise of money. They are more obsequious than Walther was with his syphilitic bishop, Martin Stephan, STD. Knowing that Marvin Schwan was an adulterer, the church officials went around saying, "He had a Scriptural divorce." I finally asked one, "Is that like Scriptural murder?"
Ask them about the first Mrs. Schwan, who was bought off with $1 million and a Cadillac. Marvin laughed about that in Forbes. She read the reprint in Christian News. Ask what happened next. Ask a "conservative" Lutheran official about Marvin buying his way into heaven. Elmer Gantry types love Elmer Gantry types.
Folks: We knew that VP Biden is a loose cannon as he is the gaffe guru. But, this seems to be a new twist for him. Could we now rightfully call him:
Obama’s “lecherous loose cannon” – aka, the vice president dirty old man ?
Look at those two male bikers in the picture. Their body language is all written over them. Anyone else but Biden would come away with two black eyes. Does it look to you as if they are pleased with Biden’s apparent untoward pushy behavior? What is VP Biden doing with his hands? The snapped picture could only show so much of what was happening. Perhaps, it is better we don’t know as we can’t see all of Biden.
But this we know for sure:
This is the same vice president who recently made the racist statement to blacks that the Republicans were going to put them all “back in chains!”
Can America ever be secure, knowing that VP Biden is only one heart beat away from the US Presidency? Or, was all of this, just a contrived “photo opt,” designed to help smoke screen White House occupier, [putative president] Obama’s continued failed presidency?
Indeed, we hear that this is the will and good pleasure of the
Father from eternity, that those who belive in the Son should have eternal life
(John 6 & 1 Corinthians 1); and that it is those who were ordained to
eternal life who believe (Acts 13); or (using a paraphrase for those who are
predestined) those who would believe in Christ for eternal life (1 Timothy 1);
similarly in Romans 8, that they have been predestined to salvation who are
justified (but only believers are justified, according to Romans 3), that those
were predestined who are finally glorified (but only believers in Christ will be
glorified, as all Scriptures testify), that they have been predestined who, in
the time of grace [sorry Mark Jeske], hope in Christ, who have the remission of
sins, and who have been received into the inheritance of saints (Ephesians 1);
indeed that we were elected into faith in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2), and for
this reason, faith is called the faith of the elect of God (Titus 1); that those
have been predestined whom the Lord knows to be His (but for "His" He knows only
believers, and would say to the rest in Matthew 7, "I never knew you"); that
they have been elected by God who are rich in faith, who will be heirs of the
kingdom (James 2); and finally, that only the sons of God have been predestined
(as the Formula of Concord testifies, to which Huber swore himself); but the
sons of God are only believers, as St. John and the Apostle Paul bear witness
(John 1 & Galations 3).
Some more gems from
"Theses Opposed to Huberianism," by Aegidius Hunnius:
Thesis 127
(pp.44-45)
If all these things are brought together as stated, who can
fail to see the monstrous audacity and vanity of Huber, who writes repeatedly
that "it is not the consensus of Scripture-neither as a matter of phraseology
nor as a concept-that believers are elected to life"; and that "it is a phrase
foreign to the sacred writings that God elected believers to life"; indeed, that
"God elected only unbelievers, which we all are by nature"; and that "it is a
novel use of language and affirmed as false if someone asserts that God either
elects or elected believers."?
I have seen posts like this on Steadfast
Waltherans from the wanna-be theologians who espouse UOJ. More to follow...
On the contrary, it has been demonstrated that this phrase is the
voice of the Scriptures themselves, indeed, the language of the Holy Spirit. And
it has been confirmed as catholic, that God pre-ordained believers to salvation
in the Son, for we hear that "God chose the elect" (Mark 13). That of these,
only believers are mentioned by name, not even Huber dares further to deny.
Likewise, that He elected and, by reason of predestination, gave to his Son
those who keep his Word, and believe in Him through the Word of the Apostles
(John 17), who come to Christ, according to John 6, "Everything that My Father
gives Me comes to Me."
***
GJ - The Great Antinomian, CFW Walther, hated the term faith and taught his cell group disciples to hate it as well. Grace, faith, the Gospel, the Means of Grace, the Holy Spirit - all these belong together. False teachers pixelate verses. They lift up one phrase, one part of a sentence and build their fantasies around it. If they would be honest, they would admit starting with their delusions and finding the fragments of verses that appear to support them. Any fragment can seem to support any dogma, as the papal party has proven, but that does not mean that the Scriptures in their entirety, as a unified Truth, even hint at their ignorant blasphemies.
The false teachers loathe and fear the efficacy of God's Word, but they believe in their word. They never stop chattering about their precious UOJ.
Everything changed on 911. Perspectives clash about why it happened. Ever since, our military families have
carried the burden of the war. I often taught Marines who were being readied at the Yuma Proving Grounds to go over to Iraq, or to serve there again. I had one SEAL in class, people in Harrier repair, former aircraft carrier crew, all types.
One woman was waiting for her husband to return from Iraq in a few days. I gave her a cigar to give him, as a thank-you. She began crying. I enjoying sharing cigars with servicemen and their families, long before Hope and Change.
His humor and insights simply wowed the Walmart meeting.
At a Walmart meeting, the author of Hope Unseen spoke to the audience of executives. Smiley was blinded by an attack in Iraq and decided to stay active duty. He went from despair to earning an MBA, climbing Mt. Rainier, skydiving, and more. His beautiful wife also spoke. They had to battle the military to keep him active duty, an act that changed military policy.
LI enjoys working at Walmart, because the military are honored year around, with extra special events on important holidays. The company welcomes and values former military. One is still in the reserves as an admiral. I looked around behind me, when I was alerted to where he was sitting. Yes, he looked like an admiral.
Just how flagrant does a pedophile need to be before the people around him contact the police? Just how far beyond seeming to force himself on a boy in a shower or loading up his laptop with photos of little girls’ crotches does he have to go?
In the first instance I’m referring to Jerry Sandusky, whom Penn State officials allowed to continue working with children even after they were told that something was seriously amiss. In the second I’m referring to the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a Catholic priest in Missouri whose superiors acted no less despicably.
In May 2010, the principal of a parochial school next door to the parish where Father Ratigan served sent a memorandum to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, asLaurie Goodstein reported in The Times. It flagged his odd behavior, including his habit of instructing children to reach into his pockets for candy.
In December 2010, hundreds of troubling, furtively taken photographs were found on his laptop, according to court testimony given too long after that fact. One showed a toddler’s genitals.
In what jail or prison cell, you might ask, did Father Ratigan spend the first half of 2011? None.
After the photos were discovered, he attempted suicide, received counseling and was reassigned by Bishop Robert W. Finn, the head of the diocese, to a new post as a chaplain to an order of nuns. There he was allowed to celebrate Mass for youth groups and host an Easter egg hunt, and he was caught taking a photograph under the table, up the skirt of the daughter of parishioners who had invited him into their home.
In May 2011, a diocesan official finally told police about the extent of Father Ratigan’s cache of child pornography. He was convicted of possession of it in August 2011. And last week Bishop Finn was convicted of failing to report him to law enforcement authorities, and got two years of probation.
He’s the first American bishop to be found criminally culpable for his inaction in the face of suspected child abuse. It was a long time coming. Over the last quarter-century there have been hundreds upon hundreds of cases of molestation by Catholic priests. And one of the galling leitmotifs of this crisis, which was the subject of a 1993 book that a colleague and I wrote, has been church leaders’ refusal to treat priests as criminals rather than abashed penitents and to let them be prosecuted in ways that might keep them away from kids.
But I’m less interested in the grim milestone of Bishop Finn’s conviction than in the crucial lessons his story reiterates.
One is that institutions have a potent impulse to avoid public scandal, and do an execrable job of policing themselves. To protect their reputations or simply to avoid conflict, they minimize even the most destructive behavior. They convince themselves that they can handle it on their own. And they persuade themselves that their mission, be it the inculcation of religious faith or the scoring of touchdowns, trumps the law’s mandates.
Another is that for all the lip service that we pay to the preciousness of children and the importance of their futures, they remain the most voiceless members of our society. Many don’t know or understand what their rights are; many don’t have the maturity or mettle to exercise them. They depend on the vigilance and good faith of adults, which is to say they depend, all too often, on a fiction.
And a third is that we’re as likely to turn away from sexual pathology as confront it. It confounds and discomfits us.
These problems transcend the Catholic Church. Penn State is in part the parable of an institution that didn’t want to be distracted or humiliated and traded away the welfare of children, a shortsighted calculation with long-term wreckage.
The Boy Scouts of America covered up sexual abuse in its ranks. A recent Los Angeles Times review of files dating from 1970 to 1991 identified more than 125 cases of alleged molestation by men whom the organization had previously had reason to suspect of abusive behavior. “In some cases,” The Times noted, “officials failed to document reports of abuse in the first place.” In others, it failed to involve the police.
Over the last two decades the Catholic Church has spelled out stricter policies, including the prompt notification of law enforcement officials. And its defenders have complained that newly revealed instances of wrongdoing are usually old cases that predated better awareness of child sexual abuse, better education about it and a toughened resolve.
But the case of Father Ratigan postdates all of that — by many, many years. It suggests the tenacity of willful ignorance and deliberate evasion, even when the price is nothing less than the ravaged psyches of vulnerable children.
“Him that honoureth Me,” saith God, “I will honor” (1 Sam. 2:30). Now God is honored in His Son. Whoso then believeth that the Son is our Mediator and Saviour, he honoureth the Father, and him again doth God honour; that is to say, adorneth him with gifts, forgiveness of sins, righteousness, the Holy Ghost, and everlasting life. Contrariwise, “They that despise Me, shall be lightly esteemed.”
This then is a general conclusion, “by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified,” therefore, “faith only justifieth.”
"The Episcopal Church professes all kind of compassion for the poor and downtrodden; for those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, Haitians, illegal immigrants, and for bishops who insist on taking back parishes they never paid a penny for. But there is one group it feels zero compassion for and they sit right on their front door - those who clean their buildings.
In February 2010, the Episcopal Church headquarters at 815nd Avenue fired all the union cleaners arguing budget constraints. After reviewing all contracts and to implement cost-cutting measures where possible, they dumped the lot of them." 'via Blog this'
"Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me?"
by Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676
1. Why should cross and trial grieve me?
Christ is near With His cheer;
Never will He leave me.
Who can rob me of the heaven
That God's Son For my own
To my faith hath given?
2. Though a heavy cross I'm bearing
And my heart Feels the smart,
Shall I be despairing?
God, my Helper, who doth send it,
Well doth know All my woe
And how best to end it.
3. God oft gives me days of gladness;
Shall I grieve If He give
Seasons, too, of sadness?
God is good and tempers ever
All my ill, And He will
Wholly leave me never.
4. Hopeful, cheerful, and undaunted
Everywhere They appear
Who in Christ are planted.
Death itself cannot appal them,
They rejoice When the voice
Of their Lord doth call them.
5. Death cannot destroy forever;
From our fears, Cares, and tears
It will us deliver.
It will close life's mournful story,
Make a way That we may
Enter heavenly glory.
6. What is all this life possesses?
But a hand Full of sand
That the heart distresses.
Noble gifts that pall me never
Christ, our Lord, Will accord
To His saints forever.
7. Lord, my Shepherd, take me to Thee.
Thou art mine; I was Thine,
Even e'er I knew Thee.
I am Thine, for Thou hast bought me;
Lost I stood, But Thy blood
Free salvation brought me.
8. Thou art mine; I love and own Thee.
Light of Joy, Ne'er shall I
From my heart dethrone Thee.
Savior, let me soon behold Thee
Face to face, -May Thy grace
Evermore enfold me!
Hymn #523 The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Ps. 73: 23
Author: Paul Gerhardt
Translated by: composite, based on John Kelly, 1867
Titled: Warum sollt' ich mich denn graemen
Composer: Johann G. Ebeling, 1666
Tune: Warum sollt' ich mich denn graemen
"If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee"
by Georg Neumark, 1621-1681
Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878
1. If thou but suffer God to guide thee
And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He'll give thee strength, whate'er betide thee,
And bear thee through the evil days.
Who trusts in God's unchanging love
Builds on the Rock that naught can move.
2. What can these anxious cares avail thee,
These never-ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help if thou bewail thee
O'er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press
The heavier for our bitterness.
3. Be patient and await His leisure
In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whate'er thy Father's pleasure
And His discerning love hath sent,
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known
To Him who chose us for His own.
4. God knows full well when times of gladness
Shall be the needful thing for thee.
When He has tried thy soul with sadness
And from all guile has found thee free,
He comes to thee all unaware
And makes thee own His loving care.
5. Nor think amid the fiery trial
That God hath cast thee off unheard,
That he whose hopes meet no denial
Must surely be of God preferred.
Time passes and much change doth bring
And sets a bound to everything.
6. All are alike before the Highest;
'Tis easy to our God, we know,
To raise thee up, though low thou liest,
To make the rich man poor and low.
True wonders still by Him are wrought
Who setteth up and brings to naught.
7. Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving,
Perform thy duties faithfully,
And trust His Word, though undeserving,
Thou yet shalt find it true for thee.
God never yet forsook in need
The soul that trusted Him indeed.
Hymn #518 The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Ps. 55:22
Author: Georg Neumark, 1640
Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1863, alt.
Titled: "Wer nur den lieben Gott laesst walten"
Composer: Georg Neumark, 1640
Tune: "Wer nur den lieben Gott"
"“We are investigating the case to determine what our options are,” Department of Finance spokesman Owen Stone said.
One city official said the back taxes would likely add up to several hundred-thousand dollars.
St. Demetrios Church, at 84-35 152nd St. in Jamaica, is also operating its Parsons Discount Store two blocks away without a Certificate of Occupancy, according to city records — a violation the Department of Buildings plans to review this week."
"If God Had Not Been on Our Side"
by Martin Luther, 1483-1546
1. If God had not been on our side
And had not come to aid us,
The foes with all their power and pride
Would surely have dismayed us;
For we, His flock, would have to fear
The threat of men both far and near
Who rise in might against us.
2. Their furious wrath, did God permit,
Would surely have consumed us
And as a deep and yawning pit
With life and limb entombed us.
Like men o'er whom dark waters roll
Their wrath would have engulfed our soul
And, like a flood, o'erwhelmed us.
3. Blest be the Lord, who foiled their threat
That they could not devour us;
Our souls, like birds, escaped their net,
They could not overpower us.
The snare is boken-we are free!
Our help is ever, Lord, in Thee,
Who madest earth and heaven.
Hymn 267 The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Ps. 124
Author: Martin Luther, 1524
Translated by: composite
Titled: "War' Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit"
Tune: "War' Gott nicht mit uns"
1st Published in: Gesangbuch
Town: Wittenberg, 1537
It was at the zenith of the seventeenth century that the religious song of Germany found its purest and sweetest expression in the hymns of Paul Gerhardt, who may be said to be the typical poet of the Lutheran Church, as Herbert is of the English. George Herbert's poems are meant to be read and meditated upon; they constantly remind us that the writer was a man of high breeding and culture, no less than an earnest Christian; Gerhardt's are intended to be set to music and sung in church, or learnt by heart by the children at home, and as constantly reveal the homeliness and simplicity, the deeply devout and quietly courageous spirit of the Lutheran pastor.
Paul Gerhardt, the "sweet singer of Lutheranism" who lived during the religious wars of the 17th century, was born on March 12, 1607 in Gräfenhaim, near Wittenberg, Germany. He was the son of Christian Gerhardt, burgermeister of Grafenhaynichen, near Wittenberg. Trained to be a Lutheran pastor, he matriculated as a student at the University of Wittenberg January 2, 1628, where Martin Luther had taught a century before.
He seems to have resided in Wittenberg until 1642 or 1643, when while he was waiting for a call, he taught the children of Andreas Barthold (one of whom, Anna Maria, he married in 1655). He had already written many hymns, but was as yet unable to publish them. During that time he had the good fortune to meet Johann Crüger, the cantor and organist at St. Nicholas Church in Berlin. Together they produced some of the greatest Lutheran chorales, including "Awake, My Heart with Gladness," ("Auf, auf, mein Herz"), "Now All the Woods Are Sleeping," "All My Heart this Night Rejoices," among others. Gerhardt's hymns combine an objective faith in justification as a free gift from God with his warm subjective experience of that gift. In all, he wrote 123 hymns, many of which are still well known and beloved throughout the world.
The whole of his youth and early manhood fell in the time of war. That it must have been a period full of disappointment and hope deferred for him, is clear enough when we find a man of his powers at the age of forty-five still only a private tutor and candidate for holy orders.
However, in 1651, Gerhardt was appointed, at the recommendation of the Berlin clergy, Lutheran Probst (chief pastor) at Mittenwalde, near Berlin. Several of his hymns were published in 1653 in the Berlin Hymn Book, and later in other collections in Brandenburg and Saxony; and became at once very popular with the people.
At Mittenwalde he passed six quiet years, during which he began to publish his hymns, which immediately attracted great attention, and were quickly adopted into the hymn-books of Brandenburg and Saxony. His name thus became known, and in 1657 he was invited to the great church of St. Nicholas, in Berlin, where his life was soon both a busy and an honorable one. He worked most assiduously and successfully in his pastoral duties; he brought out many hymns, which were caught up by the people much as Luther's had been of old; and he was the favorite preacher of the city, whom crowds flocked to hear.
He is described to us as a man of middle height, of quiet but firm and cheerful bearing; while his preaching is said to have been very earnest and persuasive, and full of Christian love and charity, which he practiced as well as preached by never turning a beggar from his doors, and receiving widows and orphans who needed help and shelter into his own house. His religion and his temperament alike made him cheerful, and not all the many disappointments of his life seem ever to have embittered his mood; but he had a very tender and scrupulous conscience, and wherever a question of conscience seemed to him to be involved, he was liable to great mental conflict and an exaggerated estimate of trifles.
In 1657, Gerhardt returned to Berlin as third diaconus of the large and influential St. Nicholas' church. In theology he was an ardent Lutheran, and before long his zeal for his Church was put to the test. Prussia was at that time governed by Frederick William I., "the Great Elector," whose memory is still revered in the country as the founder of its greatness. The mass of his people were Lutherans, but he himself belonged to the Reformed Church, to which his grandfather, the Elector Sigismund, had seceded from political motives. At the Peace of Westphalia, he was the one important German prince who acted as spokesman for the Calvinistic churches, and it was through his efforts they obtained the same legal recognition as the Lutherans.
His next endeavor was to make peace between the two Churches within his own dominions. He saw clearly enough the waste of strength and the evil passions caused by their disunion and perpetual controversies, and he is not accused of any unjust bias or partiality towards his own Church, but the times were not then ripe for such an attempt, and he met with little success. In 1662 and 1663 he summoned the leading men of both Churches to a series of conferences on the points of dispute between them, in the hopes of thus arriving at some approximation of opinion, or at least at a declaration that the points of difference were "non-essential." But the result was the precise reverse of the Elector's hopes; the more the doctors argued the farther apart they found themselves.
The Calvinism of those days was not of the modified type to which we are accustomed [in the mid-1800s], but advocated what would now be termed "extreme views," while the Lutherans, on the other hand, were very rigid in their own definitions of doctrine, and were in the habit of preaching against the Reformed Church with a scornful and bitter vehemence.
Gerhardt, indeed, was not among those who did so; his sermons, as well as his writings, were so free from controversy that many Calvinists attended his services, and his hymns had no greater admirer than the pious Electress Louisa, who herself belonged to the Reformed Church. But the whole cast of his thought was intrinsically anti-Calvinistic: that God is a loving Father over all His creatures, and that Christ died for all men, are the deepest, ever-recurring tones of his theology; and hence he found it impossible to allow that the points of difference between himself and the Reformed Church were "non-essential."
From the conferences he at first hoped a great deal; he was diligent in attending them, and drew up most of the statements in explanation or defense of doctrine on the Lutheran side. But the Elector, wearied by the ill-success of these meetings, put a stop to them in 1664, and published an edict requiring the ministers of both communions to abstain from attacking each other's doctrines in the pulpit or elsewhere with harshness or want of charity; and in 1665 he announced his intention of demanding from every beneficed Lutheran clergyman his subscription to a document pledging himself to observe the terms of this edict.
This demand at once created the greatest excitement throughout the country, and in many places caused disturbances; for the stricter Lutherans, priests and people alike, regarded it as prohibiting the use of one of the recognized standards of the Lutheran faith, the "Formula Concordia," in which the doctrines of the Reformed Church were condemned in strong terms, and considered it therefore to be an infringement on their legal rights, and an unwarrantable interference on the part of the civil power with the liberty of preaching.
Accordingly a great number of the clergy refused to sign, and were deposed; and these were in general strongly supported by their flocks. Nearly the whole of the Berlin clergy took this part, and one of the most resolute among them was Paul Gerhardt, who being very ill at the time, assembled his brethren around his sick-bed, and entreated them to be steadfast in asserting their right to freedom of speech.
Such a man's refusal could not be passed over, and early in 1666 he was deprived of his appointment; and when it appeared that many of his congregation were in the habit of resorting to his private house for religious counsel and worship, he was interdicted from performing any function of his office even in private. Of his deprivation he had said to some condoling friends "that it was but a small Berlin sort of martyrdom;" but this last prohibition wounded him deeply, and he had much private sorrow at the same time.
Three of his five children had already died in infancy, and now he lost one of his two remaining sons, the child on whose death he wrote his touching hymn,
"Thou'rt mine, yes, still Thou art mine own,"
while his wife, worn out by sorrow and anxiety, fell into a long and slow decline. When she died, Gerhardt was left with only one child, a boy of 6 years. Many of his most beautiful hymns were written at this time, and among others, "If God be on my side."
Meanwhile the city of Berlin did not take the loss of its favorite preacher quietly. Meetings were held and petitions addressed to the Elector--first by the burghers and guilds of trade, then by the Town Council, and finally by the Estates of Brandenburg, whose entreaty was said to have the support in private of the Electress herself.
Then the Elector gave way, and declared that considering the tender conscience of the preacher Paul Gerhardt, and that he had never been guilty of bitterness and uncharitableness in the pulpit, an exception should be made in his case, and he should be permitted to resume his office without subscription. The whole city was rejoiced, but now a new difficulty arose. The Elector had sent word by one of his secretaries to Paul Gerhardt of his re-appointment, but had said also that he relied on Gerhardt's well-known moderation and loyalty, that even without subscription he would act in conformity with the spirit of the edict.
This message perplexed Gerhardt's conscience once more; an implied undertaking was, he said, to a Christian man as binding as any subscription could be, and he therefore felt himself still unable to accept office on these terms. A long period of fruitless negotiations ensued, and much mental distress on Gerhardt's part; for these new scruples appeared even to many of his friends exaggerated. But how real they were to himself, is shown by his persistency, and his letters to the Town Council and Elector.
"It was only the most urgent necessity," he writes to the latter, "which induced me to retire from my pastoral office, and should I now accept it again on these terms, I should do myself a great wrong; and, so to speak, with my own hands inflict on my soul that wound which I had formerly, with such deep anguish of heart, striven to avert. I fear that God, in whose presence I walk on earth, and before whose judgment-seat I must one day appear; and as my conscience hath spoken from my youth up, and yet speaks, I can see it no otherwise than that if I should accept my office I should draw on myself God's wrath and punishment."
The Elector now commanded the Council to choose some one in Gerhardt's place; and Gerhardt accepted the post of Archdeacon of Lübben an der Spree, in Saxony in November 1668. His removal there was, however, delayed by the long sickness and death of his wife; and it was not till June, 1669 that he entered on his new duties. Here he spent the last seven years of his life; but they were years of sadness, for his wife was gone, his only child had more than one dangerous illness, and he was living in a land of strangers. Lübben was a small place, and the Town Council was composed of rough and half-educated people, who subjected their clergyman to many annoyances. His refuge and refreshment was in his gift of song, "under circumstances which," says one of his contemporaries, "would have made most men cry rather than sing."
His death occurred on May 27, 1676 in his seventieth year, and his last words were a line from one of his own hymns-- "Us no death has power to kill.". The Lübben congregation commissioned a life sized painting of him for the church where it still hangs. Beneath it one can read the inscription, "Theologus in cribro Satanae versatus" ("A theologian sifted in Satan's sieve").
He was buried at Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche, Lübben an der Spree, Spreewald, Germany. His remains are in a crypt below the altar.
Compared with most authors of his time, Paul Gerhardt wrote very little. He composed only one hundred and twenty-three hymns, which appeared at intervals from the year 1649 onwards, many of them for the first time in the "Praxis Pietatis Melica," a collection of hymns and tunes by Johann Crüger, the famous organist and composer of chorales. After Gerhardt's death they were republished separately, revised from his own MSS. by his son.
As a poet he undoubtedly holds the highest place among the hymn-writers of Germany. His hymns seem to be the spontaneous outpouring of a heart that overflows with love, trust, and praise; his language is simple and pure; if it has sometimes a touch of homeliness, it has no vulgarism,1 and at times it rises to a beauty and grace, which always give the impression of being unstudied, yet could hardly have been improved by art. His tenderness and fervor never degenerate into the sentimentality and petty conceits which were already becoming fashionable in his days; nor his penitence and sorrow into that morbid despondency which we find in Gryphius, and for which the disappointments of his own life might have furnished some excuse.
If he is not altogether free from the long-windedness and repetition which are the besetting sins of so many German writers, and especially hymn-writers, he at least more rarely succumbs to them: and in his days they were not considered a blemish. One of his contemporaries, a certain Andreas Bucholz, who wrote a great deal of religious poetry which was then highly esteemed formally announces in his preface that he has spun out his poems as long as he could, for he observed that when people were reading sacred poems at home, they preferred long ones.
Gervinus, a severe judge of sacred poetry in general, says of Gerhardt: "If one man among the poets of the seventeenth century makes an attractive impression on us, it is Gerhardt. He recurred, as no one else had done, to Luther's genuine type of the popular religious song, only with such modifications as the altered circumstances demanded.
In Luther's time the old wrathful, implacable God of the Romanists had assumed the heavenly aspect of grace and compassion; with Gerhardt the Merciful and just One is a loving and benignant Man, whom he addresses with reverential intimacy. With Luther, it was the belief in free grace and the work of Atonement, in the Redemption which had burst the gates of hell, which inspired the Christian singer with his joyous confidence; with Gerhardt it is his faith in the love of God.
Like the old poets of the people, he is pious, naive, earnest, without effort or affectation; his style is as simple as refreshing, and attractive as his tone of thought." Many of his hymns are already well known to English readers by translations from the time of Wesley downwards. Two of Wesley's translations were Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Meand Commit Thou All Thy Griefs.
