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The
Lost Dutchman’s Goldmine:
Luther’s
Biblical Doctrine of the Word
Gregory
L. Jackson, PhD
Martin
Chemnitz Press
Text
copyright, Gregory L. Jackson, 2016
Art
copyright, Norma A. Boeckler, 2016
Introduction
When I taught in Southeast Phoenix, I often drove toward
the Superstition Mountains, which seemed especially beautiful and mysterious as
the sun was setting behind me. Local papers and national TV remind everyone of
the fabled Lost Dutchman’s Goldmine, located in the Superstitions, near Apache
Junction, so rich in gold that some dreamers have spent decades looking for it.
The Dutchman, a nickname often used for Germans, is Dr.
Jacob Waltz. He had a map and directions to a goldmine with the richest ore he
had ever seen. In one published story, a sample of the ore proved that it was
indeed the purest gold ever found.
This legend, based on fact and enlarged by many fanciful
tales and deadly searches, reminds me of another German goldmine, almost
entirely lost, almost a myth today.
When Lutherans celebrate the 500th Anniversary
of the Reformation in 2017, they will be selling beer bottle openers that play “A
Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” and other trinkets, supposedly in honor of Martin
Luther. The gadgets demean a man so lost to history that Robert Wilken - once a Lutheran doctoral advisor at Notre Dame
– declared, “There is a new Luther for every generation.” Wilken is now a Roman
Catholic layman and is a Distinguished Fellow of the St. Paul Center for
Biblical Theology
.
My research in the Scriptures and comparative dogmatics
have uncovered the most basic concept of Biblical teaching, which Luther
highlighted and the Reformed rejected. Although the papal theologians used the
Scriptures to debate the Lutherans at first, they soon turned to denouncing the
Word of God as unclear, incomplete, and in need of the ultimate judge and
exegete – the Pope.
Decades ago, Lutherans taught this Biblical doctrine of the
Word and normally used those expressions in discussing the Christian Faith,
worship, doctrine, and practice. But the map to Luther’s goldmine has
apparently been lost, so leaders veer into Pentecostal, Evangelical, business,
occult, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholic gulches, washes, and flash floods.
