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Dr. Walter E. Lammerts has a doctorate in genetics, and is well known as a prominent breeder of roses. He reportedly produced 46 new varieties of roses between 1940 and 1981 including the famous Queen Elizabeth. Twenty-five percent of his roses were chosen by the All-American Rose Selection for the years top rose variations. As a result of his efforts the American Rose Society created an entirely new class of rose known as the Grandiflora.
Efficacy of the Word
November 13, 2009
"For let me tell you this, even though you know it perfectly and be already master in all things, still you are daily in the dominion of the devil, who ceases neither day nor night to steal unawares upon you, to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against the foregoing and all the commandments. Therefore you must always have God's Word in your heart, upon your lips, and in your ears. But where the heart is idle, and the Word does not sound, he breaks in and has done the damage before we are aware. On the other hand, such is the efficacy of the Word, whenever it is seriously contemplated, heard, and used, that it is bound never to be without fruit, but always awakens new understanding, pleasure, and devoutness, and produces a pure heart and pure thoughts. For these words are not inoperative or dead, but creative, living words."
The Large Catechism, #100, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 609. Tappert, p. 378f. Heiser, p. 175f.
Efficacy is the most neglected characteristic of God’s Word today, although it was central to Luther, the Concordists, the orthodox Lutherans of Europe, and the General Council in America. The efficacy of the Word was defined by WELS theologian Adolph Hoenecke: “The Word never without the Spirit, the Spirit never without the Word – that is sound doctrine.” Encapsulating the Scriptures and Confessions, that plain and simple formula means God Word and Spirit cannot be divorced from each other. If God’s Word is taught in its purity, without the adulteration of man’s wisdom, that Word will have its effect, whether to save or damn, illuminate or darken, convert or harden. Moreover, the timing of God’s work and will is not ours to judge. The efficacy of the Word is the point of contention in discussing the topic of justification. Enthusiasm—separating the Holy Spirit from the Word—lies behind every error in teaching justification, whether that error is advanced by Roman Catholics, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, or synodical Lutherans. [A synodical Lutheran honors and protects the visible church, the synod. A confessional Lutheran values the Scriptures and Confessions above all.]
Starting a book with the authority and inerrancy of the Scriptures would allow many points of agreement with traditional Protestants and with Rome. Evangelicals are keen to sponsor inerrancy conferences. My wife and I attended one in Chicago, where Robert Preus and Kurt Marquart were in attendance. One of the best descriptions of the Scriptures is from Pope Pius XII – “The Scriptures are like Christ, having a divine and a human nature, but without error.” (Paraphrased from memory. Cited in Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant.) Tragically, Lutherans have been far too eager to concentrate on points of agreement rather than areas of discord. Abusing and neglecting the efficacy of the Word has made it easy for synodical Lutherans to engage in unionistic efforts without pangs of conscience. Compromise unites, while doctrine divides – the sheep from the goats.
The doctrine of Creation embarrasses synodical Lutherans because they must believe, teach, and confess the efficacy of the Word to allow Creation its rightful place. Modern Evangelicals, influenced by Harold Ockenga, are only too happy to surrender Creation to the theory of Evolution, that 19th century insight that gave us eugenics, genocide, and abortion. Roman Catholics can teach evolution with a good conscience because the Vatican has approved man’s ascent from apes (now revised as “descent” by the animal rights advocates). No one should be shocked that the “conservative” pastors who gladly embrace Church Growth are just as willing to abandon Creation:
"Don't let the world paint us into a corner of antiquarianism on subjects like a six-day creation or verbal inspiration." Rev. Paul Kelm, WELS, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 13.
"The evangelical believes that Christianity is intellectually defensible but the Christian cannot be obscurantist in scientific questions pertaining to the creation, the age of man, the universality of the flood and other moot Biblical questions." Rev. Harold J. Ockenga, 12-8-57, news release quoted in William E. Ashbrook, Evangelicalism, The New Neutralism, Columbus: Calvary Bible Church, 1963, p. 8.
"Thus, the Teaching of the Church leaves the doctrine of Evolution an open question, as long as it confines its speculations to the development, from other living matter already in existence, of the human body. (That souls are immediately created by God is a view which the Catholic faith imposes on us.) In the present state of scientific and theological opinion, this question may be legitimately canvassed by research, and by discussion between experts on both sides." Encyclical of Pius XII, Humani generis, August, 1950, #36. Cited in Remy Collin, Evolution, New York: Hawthorn Books, 1959, p. 117.
"Many Catholics hold what is known as 'moderate evolutionism,' that is, the theory that the human body evolved to a certain point from animals, and then God intervened directly and breathed into this living, animal body a human soul and so produced the first man and the first woman. Such a theory does not seem to be contrary to Catholic teaching, and Catholics are free to hold it." Kenneth Baker, S.J., Fundamentals of Catholicism, 3 vols., San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1982, II, p. 142.
Therefore, these leaders of compromise and retreat, Rome and Kelm and Ockenga, urge their disciples to look upon Creation as a burden, a terrible cross to bear. They are saying that we can make the revealed doctrine of God sound better if we process it, add sweeteners, and remove the splinters of the cross.
Synodical Lutherans will allow the doctrine of Creation to remain in the background, if no one insists on the Six-Day Creation. Are they embarrassed by God getting His work done in six 24-hour days, resting on the seventh? No, they are secretly scandalized by God working exclusively through the Word, because that Biblical doctrine denies them their glory, their agenda, their expensive programs of adulterating God’s Word. In short, the doctrine of Creation threatens their income and worldly honors, such as the Church Growth Hall of Shame.
Doctrine of Creation – Conversion – Efficacy
Before man existed, God fashioned the entire universe through the creating Word – the Son of God. When God spoke through the Logos (the Word), His will was immediately carried out, not in billions of years to allow for random events of infinite complexity. This issue is not antiquarian but essential to justification by faith.
KJV Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature [new creation].
KJV 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [new creation]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
KJV Ephesians 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
KJV Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
KJV Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
The universe was created by the Word, and every believer is a new creation through the Word. But UOJ advocates would have us understand that God works without the Word in declaring the entire world absolved, free from sin, extending this Enthusiastic decree to the residents of Hell.
Christ unifies Creation and the new creation. The Fourth Gospel begins with phrases so simple that they serve well to introduce anyone to a new language. Each of the three clauses seems to be the ringing of a solemn bell—the Word, the Word, the Word—tolling the eternal Godhead of Christ Jesus, the foundation of the Christian faith, the cornerstone of the City of God.
B. And the Word was with God – The Father/Son relationship, so clearly revealed in John’s Gospel, illuminates every passage of the Old Testament where God commands, speaks, and sends forth His Word. God speaks and the speaking is accomplished through the Word, the Son of God, co-equal in majesty.
C. And the Word was God – On the first day of Greek class, the slowest student, using a jimmy, can determine that all denials of the divinity of Christ are utterly rejected in a few words of child-like simplicity.