The Word at Work Magazine - Summer 2014

Word atWork

the

The magazine of the Institute of Lutheran Theology

Summer/Fall 2014 Vol. 3.1, 3.2

by Leon Miles

Luther and Reason Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt – p26

Introducing Dr. Jonathan Sorum p10

Christian Education as the Honoring of Baptism Dr. Frederick W. Baltz – p18

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Board of Directors Honorable G. Barry Anderson Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court Rev. Dr. Fred Baltz Pastor, St Matthew Lutheran Church, Galena IL

Word atWork

the p3

Letter from the President Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt

p4

Stand Strong Leon Miles

p6

“Who Knows How God May Use Them?”

Luther and the Reform of Education Rev. Eric Jonas Swensson

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Them’s Fightin’ Words Rev. Timothy Swenson

p10

Introducing Dr. Jonathan Sorum

Rev. James T. Lehmann STS –Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Thomasboro IL, NALC Executive Council

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Why the Commandments are First (Part 2) Rev. Dr. George H. Muedeking

Dr. Charles Manske Founding President, Concordia University, Irvine CA

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Lutherans and Christian Education Constance Sorenson

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Using Technology for Lutheran Education Dr. Doug Dillner

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The Cross is God’s Controlling Word Rev. Douglas V. Morton

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A Crib Sheet for Trinitarian Study Dr. George Tsakiridis

p18

Christian Education as the Honoring of Baptism Dr. Frederick W. Baltz

p22

Seeing God Rev. David Patterson

p24

Student Spotlight: Kari Malinak Dale A. Swenson

p26

Luther and Reason Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt

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House of Studies Event

Dr. Eugene Bunkowske Emeritus Professor of Outreach, Concordia University, St. Paul Founder, Lutheran Society for Missiology Rev. John Bent Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Whitefish MT Debra Hesse Agribusiness Owner and Manager, Moses Lake WA Dr. Hans J Hillerbrand Emeritus Professor of Religion, Duke University

Dr. Mark Mattes Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Grand View University Rev. Janine Rew-Werling Pastor, Hosanna Lutheran Church, Watertown SD Rev. Mark Richardson Service Coordinator, Augustana District, LCMC; Associate Pastor, Christ the King- Hutchinson MN Fred Schickedanz Real Estate Developer, Calgary Alberta Dr. Phil Wold Retired Physician, Mankato MN

Staff Dennis Bielfeldt, President president@ilt.org Fred Baltz, Evangelism and Missions fbaltz@ilt.org Carl Deardoff, Communications cdeardoff@ilt.org Doug Dillner, Assoc. Dean of Academics and Registrar ddillner@ilt.org Rad Finch, VP of Development rfinch@ilt.org Threasa Hopkins, Executive Asst. to the President thopkins@ilt.org Leon Miles, Admissions and Business Office lmiles@ilt.org Doug Morton, Certificate Programs and Publications dmorton@ilt.org Denia Murrin, Support Staff dhaynes@ilt.org David Patterson, Librarian dpatterson@ilt.org Colleen Powers, Library Clerk Tom Sandersfeld, Development tsandersfeld@ilt.org Marsha Schmit, Admin. Asst. of Development mschmit@ilt.org Constance Sorenson, Congregational Services csorenson@ilt.org Jonathan Sorum, Dean of Academic Affairs jsorum@ilt.org Kara Swenson, Library Technician Timothy J. Swenson, Chaplain and Student Life tswenson@ilt.org Eric Swensson, Intl. Relationships and Marketing eswensson@ilt.org Pam Wells, Library Technician

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Douglas V. Morton - Editor Marsha Schmit - Associate Editor Dale A. Swenson - Associate Editor Carl Deardoff - Graphic Design & Production

Institute of Lutheran Theology 910 4th Street, Brookings, SD 57006 Phone: 605-692-9337 Fax: 605-692-0884 Web Site: www.ilt.org

From the Office of the President

Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ!

inherited, that Lutheran theology is deeply related to the Catholic theology that preceded it.

We are busy at the Institute of Lutheran Theology We at ILT believe that the best preachers and preparing for this Fall semester. This is our sixth teachers are those that know well the Holy Fall of offering graduate and certificate courses to Scriptures, the Lutheran Confessions, and the Lutheran pastors, teachers, and leaders. We are tradition of Christian theology generally. Simply excited by many things! Dr. Jonathan Sorum arrived put, just like the original Lutheran Reformers, in May and began his tenure as our first full-time ILT believes steadfastly in the value of education.

Dean of Academic Affairs. New students are being Early Lutheran theology was conceived and admitted and seasoned ones are taught by faith-filled teachers in graduating. It appears that there the academic spirit of German will be enrollment increases again We at ILT believe that university life. ILT believes that the best preachers and this Fall. It is a wonderful time to theology is a crucially important be part of ILT! teachers are those that academic discipline, and like the original Lutheran reformers, that it know well the Holy ILT has always believed that the Scriptures, the Lutheran should be taught with an academic Lutheran theological tradition spirit by faith-filled professors.

Confessions, and the is a very precious one, and that tradition of Christian it is thus exceedingly important The present issue of the Word at theology generally. to build a school that will Work deals with the importance of communicate this tradition to its education for passing on the faith. students. We continue to think We offer our magazine to you free that the Lutheran tradition is best communicated of charge. If you like it, please share with friends within a Lutheran ethos, within an overarching and family. If you are so moved, please consider a context of Lutheran assumptions, beliefs and small offering to help us continue to publish and practices. It is for this reason that we employ highlydeliver the Word at Work free of charge. qualified and appropriately-credentialed Lutheran faculty to communicate the Lutheran tradition to In Christ, future pastors and teachers.

We also believe that Lutheran theology is best understood when seen within the context of western theology generally. ILT students learn that Lutheran theology developed within a historical context, that Luther and the Reformers knew profoundly the philosophical and theological traditions they

Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt President Institute of Lutheran Theology

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by Leon Miles

In the 17th Century, following the bloody wars of the 16th This is a skepticism about the usefulness and value of higher Century, a search began for an answer to the savage death caused education. It would seem that there can be too much of a good by war. Some saw religion—or more specifically, the divisive thing when it comes to education. It is often thought that “higher arguments between the different denominations within Chrislearning” is at fault for much of the contentious division in the tianity—as the ultimate cause of the wars. One such person was world. The search for depth of understanding divides and forces Lord Herbert of Cherbury. He had been an English soldier and people into argumentation. Thus, in our day and age, there is a diplomat during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Returning temptation for Christians to devalue education. There are those from the war, he questioned the point of it all. He wondered if who even question whether knowledge is necessary at all and all Christian groups did not hold to what he just how much one must seek to understand called “common notions.” It was his hope the wisdom of God. Many of these people God sends his workers question the value of delving too deeply into that if there could be agreement on certain foundational truths, people could then move into the community of the depths of God’s Word, preferring rather to forward in peace and work towards unity.1 play only in the shallows.

believers in order to be guides and teachers with the expressed purpose of protecting his people through the knowledge they receive.

Lord Herbert’s arguments became foundational for later Deists who rejected all supernatural claims and focused only on those ideas that come from reason alone. Lord Herbert’s desire is much like the desire of many today who want to abandon academic education for the practical education of living daily life. In our day, it is the academic who is often seen as divisive, as the destroyer of the peace. To live and let live—and to not think too deeply about it—is often seen as nobler than the search for knowledge which leads only to division, argumentation, and ultimately to the breakdown of love, unity, and peace in the culture.

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Accordingly, it is thought that faith is the highest form in the Christian Life. Knowledge, specifically an academic understanding of the Bible and church history, are detrimental to the unity of faith and considered to stand as an obstruction to the advancement of the Christian message. The search for knowledge and the unwavering commitment to statements of truth are condemned as being in conflict with the Christian understanding of faith and love. Thus, in a sense, the bloody wars of the 16th Century have moved into the academic institutions. Hence, many Christians who think this way believe it is time to end the war, to rely on faith alone, and to stop fighting about the ‘specifics.’

However, the temptation to leave the search for knowledge behind for the sake of peace, does not accomplish the desired goal. Instead, it opens the heart of the believer to the temptations and lies that come from Satan himself. Six times in his letters the Apostle Paul says, “I do not want you to be ignorant brothers.”2 In each case he describes how ignorance leads to temptation and sin. As Paul sees it, ignorance can lead a person away from Christ through the deceptions of the world and Satan. Knowledge of the truth is one of the ways God works to protect his people from the attacks of the enemy.

This is the purpose for which God calls and sends his workers.

They are to teach the truth in order to help the people of God stand strong.

Paul writes, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:11-16; ESV) God sends his workers into the community of believers in order to be guides and teachers with the expressed purpose of protecting his people through the knowledge they receive. This in no way implies that a person is saved by knowledge. The Scriptures are clear that sinners are saved through faith in Christ. Knowledge, however, protects from temptations and lies. Thus, while God does not save his people through knowledge, he does arm them with it in order to face the enemies of faith.

This is not to say all knowledge is accessible. The Scriptures make it clear that God has not revealed everything. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (ESV). Paul also acknowledges this. He writes, “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10 ESV). Knowledge does not save. Salvation is only through Christ and it is received only

through faith in Christ. On the other hand, knowledge is given

by God for the protection of His people. All is not fully known, but what is known has been revealed so that God’s people might be protected. As it says in Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6 ESV).

It must also be acknowledged that there is a temptation which accompanies the possession of knowledge. Paul gives the following warning: “We know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ This ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

But if anyone loves God, he is known by God” (1 Corinthians 8:1-3; ESV). An ever present temptation, when in possession of knowledge, is to think more about oneself than to live out one’s life in love to the neighbor. Or, to put it more bluntly, there is always the danger to think more highly of one’s self than one should. This temptation comes from not knowing. More specifically, temptation comes from forgetting the truth about who one is without Christ. It comes from forgetting about sin. True knowledge is humility. It is to remember the salvation found only in Christ.

The knowledge that comes from God has certain limits. It is limited to the revelation God gives and must not presume to go beyond this. It also must be balanced by humility and love. But it has power. It has the power of the Spirit of God to help those who believe to stand up against the enemy. It has the power to preserve the Beloved for whom the Father sent his Son to die. The people of God must not succumb to the temptation to abandon knowledge for faith. The Word of God must be studied and learned. In this way, while keeping the limitations in mind, the people of God will stand defended on the day of attack. They will not fail because it is the Word of God which causes them to stand strong.

James C. Livingston, Modern Christian Thought, vol. 1, The Enlightenment and the Nineteenth Century (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2006), 15-16.

2 This is my translation of the words, “οὐ θέλω δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, ἀδελφοί.” It is found in these verses with minor variants: Romans 1:13; 11:25; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

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Leon Miles Director of Admissions lmiles@ilt.org

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“Who Knows How God May Luther and the Reform of Education

“When schools flourish, things go well and the church is secure...

When we are dead, where are others [to take our place] if there are no schools? God has preserved the church through schools.”1 – Martin Luther The following points show how important education was for Martin Luther and the Reformation: • Luther saw educational reform as going hand-in-hand with Church reform.

• He and his colleagues developed new curricula and pedagogies that shaped education for years to come.

• He advocated a public school education for boys and girls.

• He facilitated continuing adult education as well as education for the “traditional student.”

• He pioneered new means of communication for education.

• He favored the education of international students as a way to spread the message of the Reformation.

All of this was because Luther believed in

the effectual power of the Word of the Gospel, both in preaching and in teaching. Thus, he saw the importance of education. He worked for more and for better education for every person. He did this for the salvation of souls and for the betterment of civic life.

He did all of this even while he kept his “day job” as a professor and pastor.

Luther was a “university man” and all his efforts at education emanated from the University in Wittenberg. He had been called to

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Use Them?”

by Rev. Eric Jonas Swensson

Wittenberg to be “Doctor in Bible” and stayed with that position until the day he died. He preached and taught regularly, always taking his professional responsibilities very seriously. Many of his Reformation ideas were results of his lecture preparation.2 Luther’s only extended break from teaching at Wittenberg was his confinement at the Wartburg in 1521-22 after being declared a heretic and outlaw by the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. On his return to Wittenberg he had an effective hand in the formation of the new church, a church based on the reformation of thought as expressed in his writings. It was his previous experience in revising the university curricula some seven years earlier that enabled him to propose and accomplish the needed changes.

His ideas, which had been so widely circulated since his writing of the 95 Theses3 in 1517, stemmed from his proposals for curricula change at Wittenberg University. “I do this out of concern for theology and the salvation of the brethren,”4 wrote Luther in 1516.5 In other words, the Reformation did not come out of the world of ideas, theological speculation, or pious thoughts. Rather, Reformation grew out of concern for the well-being of his students. Thus, when dealing with the Reformation, it is important to understand that “reform of the church was inseparable from the reform of education.”6 Luther knew universities produced pastors, jurists and educators who were all leaders of society.7 His new educational model was successful because it was implemented in the civil institutions as it had been in the university. All educated Christians were free to speak out on weighty issues since they were no longer divided into “spiritual” and “secular” estates. Free from a certain type of scholastic theology that had once governed university structure, Wittenberg University turned out a generation of people who expected pastors and educators to be on the same biblical footing, and these were expected to train another generation to stand on that same footing.

This was not at all easy. Nor was the outcome guaranteed. Only a person with the drive, the intellect, and the clarity of a man like Luther could persuade the German people to undertake this kind of responsibility. The pivotal years were 1522-1524. Chaos had reigned in Wittenberg while Luther was away at the Wartburg.

Some of Luther’s former allies in educational reform, not fully grasping Luther’s vision, behaved recklessly, leading people down the wrong path.8

Other problems arose. Once parents understood that a university degree was not going to gain for their children a lucrative career in the papal system, they saw no reason to give money to a school.

Parents saw no advantage in an advanced education. Many of these parents concluded that a mere rudimentary education for their children was fine and nothing else was needed.9 Many of the authorities had no interest in taking over schools once run by the Roman Catholic religious orders. Also, one of the things that Luther and his colleagues had to deal with early on was a decline in university enrollments.

In 1524 Luther wrote “To the Councilmen of all Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools.”10 The aim of this book was nothing less than the “rebooting” of the educational system. Luther stressed two very important points. First, he said education was necessary for the spiritual growth of both boys and girls. Second, he noted that a good education was requisite for a person becoming a good citizen.

For it is a grave and important matter, and one which is of vital concern both to Christ and the world at large, that we take steps to help the youth. By so doing we will be taking steps to help ourselves and everybody else. Bear in mind that such insidious, subtle, and crafty attacks of the devil must be met with great Christian determination. My dear sirs, if we have to spend such large sums every year on guns, roads, bridges, dams, and countless similar items to insure the temporal peace and prosperity of a city, why should not much more be devoted to the poor neglected youth—at least enough to engage one or two competent men to teach school?11 The civil authorities responded positively to the book and undertook the formation of schools. They began to hire teachers. However, what good are teachers if you have no students, and there were too many empty desks? Thus, parents had to be persuaded that their children needed an education. This prompted Luther to write his “Sermon on Keeping Children in School.”12 He wrote it in 1530 at Coburg Castle as he waited for the end of the Diet of Augsburg where his followers were presenting the Augsburg Confession. This was a pivotal time in the reform of the church.

Luther’s idea was to address the clergy and to have them spread the message that education would lead to the good of all. He wrote passionately about the importance of having well-educated pastors and teachers. He noted that even those who would pursue different careers would still benefit from a reformed curriculum centered on Scripture, languages, grammar, logic and rhetoric. He begins with the office of pastor. He writes: A true pastor thus contributes to the well-being of men in body and soul, in property and honor. But beyond that see how he also serves God and what glorious worship and sacrifice he renders...In a word, if we would praise God to the uttermost, we must praise his word and preaching; for the office and the word are his.13 Continued on page 20

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Them’s Fightin’ Words...

by Rev. Timonthy Swenson

This folksy colloquialism was peppered across my childhood cinematic landscape. From the early John Wayne movies to the classic Westerns of Tom Mix and Gary Cooper, the accusation: “Them’s fightin’ words,” ended conversations and began confrontations with fisticuffs, brawling, and gunfights often the result. I certainly learned that disparaging remarks about one’s character, one’s mother, or the integrity of one’s fellow cowhands on the ranch fell into the category of “fighting words.”

words,” rebuts the world and proceeds to shove them back down the Christian’s throat with some sort of fisticuffs, brawling, or gunfights—usually meaning that rejection, persecution and possibly martyrdom are soon to follow.

The word concerning the forgiveness of sins receives ample attestation from the lips of Jesus. He announces it from the cross: “And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) Jesus instructs his disciples in it: “Bind it on earth, it’s bound in heaven; As I grew in years and became increasingly involved in loose it on earth, it’s loosed in heaven.” (cf. Mt. 16:19, Mt. church life, the notion of “fighting words” disappeared into 18:18, John 20:23) In these passages Jesus delivers to his the fog of memory. After all, Christians disciples the “Keys of the Kingdom.” are nice, right; no disparaging remarks Jesus sends his disciples out to forgive Do not be surprised, my would ever fall from their lips, right? sins: “…and that repentance and friends…my brothers and Not until some years into my time in forgiveness of sins should be prosisters in Christ… my fellow the pulpit, did that notion of “fighting claimed in his name to all nations…” words” work its way out of memo(Luke 24:47) The world does not like preachers of Christ and him ry’s fog. I learned from preaching the to hear of the forgiveness of sins. It crucified, and him alone. The gospel of Jesus Christ, him crucified would much rather hear of the tolervery words which must be and him alone, that the world hears ation of sins or the ignoring of sins or preached into the world are this message and responds, “Them’s the improvement of sins. You know, the most dangerous words in fightin’ words!” Three essential words of course, why the world does this: to preached by Christians particularly hear the forgiveness of sins one must the world. provoke this response: 1) the word first hear that one is a sinner—was, concerning the exclusivity of Jesus is, and always will be until the end Christ; 2) the word concerning the forgiveness of sins; and, of the world. Such hearing, the world cannot abide; for it 3) the word concerning the resurrection of the dead. These maintains the façade that it can set its sins aside (cf. Matare the three most dangerous words in the world. thew 23:27 with its “white-washed tombs” image). Whenever the world hears “I forgive you your sins” without any The word concerning the exclusivity of Jesus Christ reconditions placed upon forgiveness, the world hears that ceives paradigmatic attestation in John 14:6—“Jesus said declaration as the end of conversation and the beginning to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one of confrontation. “Them’s fightin’ words,” responds the comes to the Father except through me.” That Jesus Christ, world and it proceeds to bind forgiveness with all sorts of him crucified, and him alone, could be the unique and exconditions and qualifications. The forgiveness of sins ends clusive savior of the world draws the world’s ire. His cross the world’s practice of holding sins against one another exposes the world’s addiction to counterfeit glory. His sole as its primary way of manipulating behavior. The world sufficiency as savior contradicts all the world’s self-chosen cannot abide this, either. And so, it works to silence the and preferred saviors. His assertion at being the unshared “I forgive you” with some sort of fisticuffs, brawling, or conduit to the Father contradicts and falsifies all the gunfights—usually meaning that rejection, persecution world’s claims of knowing many paths to God. The world and possibly martyrdom are soon to follow. hears this great “I am…” declaration as the end of conversation and the beginning of confrontation. “Them’s fightin’

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The word concerning the resurrection of the dead is proclaimed in Jesus’ rising on the third day, is delivered in your baptism into the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and is confessed in the Apostle’s Creed. This word, the word of the resurrection, is the word most dangerous to the world. For, you see, every worldly government, institution, and organization uses exactly the same power.

That power is the power to coerce. Organizations coerce your support and participation from you through the enticement of their attractiveness and the suggestion of urgency for you might be missing out on something.

Institutions coerce your cooperation through the threat of exclusion from participation and/or membership. Governments coerce your lawful behavior as citizens through the threat of physical force or economic confiscation. All this coercion ultimately rests upon the power to take your life from you, either quickly as in execution or slowly as in imprisonment. Finally, worldly power can only say, “Obey or you’ll be dead.” Resurrection laughs at such threats; it scoffs in the face of mere worldly power. The resurrection from the dead is the only solution to all the world’s misuse—its sinful and broken use—of its power. To those who enjoy the resurrection of the dead, the power of the world holds no more fear (cf. Mt. 10:28 & Luke 12:4-5).

The world cannot stand this derision. Whenever the world hears of the resurrection of the dead, the world shuts its ears and begins to shout, “Them’s fightin’ words!” And so, it works to silence such talk with some sort of fisticuffs, brawling, or gunfights—usually meaning that rejection, persecution and possibly martyrdom are soon to follow.

Do not be surprised, my friends...my brothers and sisters in Christ...my fellow preachers of Christ and him crucified, and him alone. The very words which must be preached into the world are the most dangerous words in the world. They are Christ’s exclusivity, sin’s forgiveness, and the dead resurrected. The world...the world full of sinners…Sinners like you, you hear those words and say, “Them’s fightin’ words.” But it’s a fight you cannot win; for the one who’s been given all authority in heaven and on earth has already said...Jesus has said, “Take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Jesus has overcome you.

Rev. Timothy Swenson Dean of Chapel and Student Services tswenson@ilt.org

7 Ways, 7 Days A prayer for each day of the week for ILT.

A prayer of thanksgiving for new and returning students for the beginning of the 2014-2015 Academic Year.

A prayer for present and future ILT supporters, and their families.

A prayer for the faculty that the words they speak and teach are pleasing to God.

A prayer for the staff as they work as servants of Christ.

A prayer for God’s continued blessing upon the many congregations and church bodies who support ILT.

A prayer for guidance from the Holy Spirit.

A prayer for faithful Pastors and Church Workers to serve the church in the future.

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Dr. Sorum Joins ILT Team The Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT) is pleased to announce Dr. Jonathan Sorum as the new Dean of Academic Affairs.

“My goal for the Institute of Lutheran Theology is to prepare pastors and ministers who know what the gospel is and how to proclaim it. I want to maintain and build a faculty committed to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions that represents all the major streams of North American Lutheranism,” said Dr. Sorum. “ILT is one of the key places where the Holy Spirit is at work in North America to renew the proclamation of the gospel and I am excited to be in on it. We are only now seeing it unfold, but I have the wild hope that it is raising up a vital Lutheran witness in North America where all streams of Lutheranism can join together and engage in the hard work of theology and theological formation.”

Dr. Sorum earned a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. After teaching systematic theology in an adjunct capacity at Luther Seminary, he taught full time at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 2000 to 2006. Sorum has been a member of the ILT faculty since 2012, and has served in pastoral ministry for over 20 years.

President Dennis Bielfeldt hopes that Dr. Sorum will help build on the culture of academic excellence at ILT. “I expect strong theological and academic leadership from Dr. Sorum. I believe that he will work diligently to build exceptional academic programs at the Institute of Lutheran Theology,” said President Dennis Bielfeldt. “Dr. Sorum also has strong pastoral skills, and he understands that an academic program in theology must include a pastoral theology component.“ President Bielfeldt described Dr. Sorum as “a man of great integrity, who has a pastor’s heart for each and every student, and a quick and able theological mind. He is widely recognized internationally for his work in Bonhoeffer, and he brings to us a deep understanding of the twentieth century German-Lutheran context. I am very pleased that Dr. Sorum is joining us and I believe that our students will be very pleased as well.”

As the new Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Sorum sees the importance of education taking place within the heart of the congregation. “Our education is never merely academic.

Students are embedded in congregations, with pastor-mentors. They are bringing their experiences in ministry into the classroom and taking what they learn in the classroom into their ministry. This helps ensure that we keep focused on the task of proclaiming the gospel--from the pulpit, in classes, in pastoral care situations. Our students graduate from ILT with a solid foundation of practice as theologians who can rightly distinguish law and gospel and are faithful heralds of God.”

-Aug. 11, 2014- Dr. Randy Bell (pictured left) of the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE) visited the headquarters of the Institute of Lutheran Theology to prepare ILT for the steps in the official accreditation process.

Dr. Bell met with local staff, toured the library, and learned about general operations. He met with Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt, the president of ILT, Dr. Eugene Bunkowske, the chair of ILT’s Board of Directors, and Dr. Jonathan Sorum, the Dean of Academic Affairs, to discuss ILT’s readiness to apply for accreditation.

“Dr. Bell was very encouraging, helpful and informative. He expressed confidence that ILT will be successful in creating the internal processes that will lead to eventual accreditation,” said Dr. Sorum. “The process will take us some years and will involve a cooperative effort from all our faculty, staff and board members. But from the very beginning, it will make us a better school, more focused on our mission of preparing ministers of the gospel for the 21st century.”

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By Rev. Dr. George H Muedeking

(pt.2 - continued from Advent 2013, Vol 2.4) How then would we best meet up with God and his revelation? The Commandments emphasize immediately that humans are “in relationship.” They show us who we are and who we may become, because we are related to God and to each other.

This is a truth that only in the 20th century has become quite vivid for us. Due to the work of philosophers and theologians like Martin Buber, we have become sensitive to the polarity of “Ich und Du”--of “I and Thou.” They have taught us that we become an “I,” a self-conscious Ego, only because we are poised over against another “You” or “Thou.” In contrast to sticks and stones and the objective world which we can move about at our whim, we are made aware that this “Thou,” this other human Subject, cannot be coerced. Humans then become fully human, self-conscious and self-identifying, precisely because they clash or party with other humans about them who have their own respective wills and agendas.

Ich comes from Du Psychiatrist Fritz Kunkel, founder of “We-psychology,” illustrates this pathway to psychological self-understanding like this: the self-identifying “I” presumably develops in the child in the measure to which it discovers that the mother’s breast (or the surrogate bottle-holding caretaker) can be withdrawn even when feeding is not completed.

The breast is not a part of the infant. It is part of another world--experienced to be apart from and different from the nursing baby itself.

The next definitive step in self-consciousness comes, according to Kunkel, when mother or the care-taker surro-

gate, removes herself from the room, and disappears out of sight. Sheer panic, a totally traumatic crisis, ensues. What a relief when mother reappears!

But life will never be the same again. Now the child experiences, “ I am I. Alone am I and wholly vulnerable; and mother is herself, she is not me.”

The immense importance of this discovery by the child can be verified by the way in which the maturing baby so delights in playing “peek-a-boo.” Peek--I am here for you, child. But now I am gone. No, I’m back again. I have come back into Existence once more. And so your Existence is also sure. You are you; just so, I am I. We become self-identified, we become egos, only in relationship: I found you and so I found me.

Again—Why did Luther start his Small Catechism with the Commandments? Begin here: how did we find ourselves as individuals? Now then, in Part 3, we will explore how the Commandments function in developing this self-recognition over against God. (to be continued...)

The late Dr. George H. Muedeking was the Senior Editor of the Lutheran Standard, the official publication of the American Lutheran Church; and professor of Functional Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

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Lutherans and Christian Education

by Constance Sorenson

When I found out that our theme for this issue of the Word at Work magazine was on the importance of Lutheran education, I immediately contacted my friend and mentor, Dr. Charles Manske, founder of Christ College/Concordia University, Irvine, CA. I knew he would be able to give me the reasons why Lutheran education is, was, and always will be, important. We, at the Institute of Lutheran Theology, strive to bring the best education for future pastors, theologians, as well as church leaders and workers. My heart is with the people in the pew who need to know God’s Word and how to apply it in their day-to-day lives.

Some of reasons Dr. Manske gave me are in bold and italized text with my comments below them.

1. Lutherans teach Christ according to His Great Commission, “Go and make disciples of all nations . . .teaching them” (Matt 28:19-20).

Hence, Lutherans respond with education at all levels.

As I call Lutheran congregations across America there is one thing that is music to my ears. The voice message on the church phone gives the times of worship services and then says, “There is Sunday school for all ages at 9:45.” The best example parents can give their children is that when the kids go off to Sunday school class, so do Mom and Dad. As a Director of Christian Education at my former church, I knew the necessity of recruiting for Sunday school teachers. Male role models are important for all ages, preschool to adult. Read Luther’s teaching on this in the Small and Large Catechisms.

2. Lutherans teach the Word of God according to Paul’s admonition “to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:15-16). Hence, Lutherans teach God’s Word applies to all of your Christian life.

How do we equip ourselves and our families for God’s work on a daily basis? Education on Sunday mornings is important, but daily education in the home is extremely important. Praying is as regular and necessary as breathing and devotions at the start of each day should be as routine as brushing your teeth.

When we receive God’s Word in the devotion, we come under its discipline. We can never measure up to its rule. That knowledge should drive us to prayer. The Lord will not fail to answer. We receive help in our struggle which is to receive life from God’s Word and not from television, social media, and other things of this world.

Consider how parents are educating their children 24/7 whether they are aware of it or not. Children are watching and listening constantly.

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That’s an awesome responsibility. Parents receive encouragement, strength, and forgiveness as they are confronted by: “Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray” (Proverbs 22:6 NRSV). Such is the power of God’s Word as it comes to rule in our lives and families. Is this happening in your home today?

3. Lutherans teach and respond to Christ’s love and forgiveness because we are, “God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10), namely, not to withdraw from the evil in our society, but to encounter it and transform it as Jesus Christ Himself did on earth.

We are called to be “holy in mean streets” (Oswald Chambers). What does that mean? Luther said we are to be “little Christ’s.” We are God’s “living voice of the Gospel” (viva vox evangelii) according to Luther.

We speak comfort and compassion to the hungry, lonely, and despairing. Sometimes in forbearance we turn the other cheek. Sometimes in confrontation we remind the moneychangers that God’s house is a house of prayer.

Living in the world today, while receiving life from the Word of God, is no easy task. We hear that Christ is Truth and think about how seldom Truth is told. Luther said, “Peace if possible, truth at all costs.”

Being peaceable to the mainstream comes with a price—that is, the sacrifice of the Truth. Jesus promised, “The Truth will set you free!”

Yet we are in bondage, held captive by speaking, thinking and doing what is politically correct! How can we be His living voice of the Gospel—His Light in the World—if we are shackled by half-truths or claims that there are no absolutes? It’s nonsense! Utter nonsense! We have God’s Word to measure them against. Jesus Christ, God’s Truth, is the one absolute.

Are you a “little Christ:” speaking His Truth in love as you live in this world, as you work out your vocations, as you engage your neighborhoods, and even as you teach your own families?

Paul talks a great deal about equipping the saints. Pastors and church leaders equip their members so that the people can go back to their homes. There, dwelling in the Word, parents equip their children. In that way we build a community of people who know who they are, who they belong to and who they are called to be: God’s people, the Body of Christ, the Church, His living voice of the Gospel in the world.

Constance Sorenson Director of Congregational Relations csorenson@ilt.org

Using Technology for Lutheran Education

by Dr. Doug Dillner

The English word “seminary” comes from the Latin word seminarium which translates loosely as “seedbed.” The modern usage of this concept grew out of the Council of Trent that produced in its twenty-third session, “Directions for Establishing Seminaries For Clerics...”1 Here is an interesting excerpt from that meeting:

Consider the person who is working at farming corn for a living, married with two children. This trade consumes his weekdays while the weekends he is “pastor” for two small congregations positioned about 50 miles apart. These congregations called him as pastor, basically, because they thought he could fill the role of pastor, i.e., he could preach the Gospel and “pastor the flock”. Now so far, we picture a man who has little free time and is working hard seven days a week! Let’s turn our attention to his academic background.

Into this college shall be received such as are at least twelve years of age, are born of lawful wedlock, who know how to read and write competently,and whose character and inclinaHe has an agricultural degree in farming from a reputable univertion justify the hope that they will dedicate themselves forever sity but no academic training in theology (even though he is filling to the ecclesiastical ministry. It wishes, however, that in the the role of pastor at two congregations!) He knows he needs to learn selection the sons of the poor be given preference, though it more theology and his congregations would feel better if he did too. does not exclude those of the wealthy Problem: the nearest school that offers a Master class, provided they be maintained at of Divinity is two states away and has no online But there is even a more their own expense and manifest a zeal courses. He cannot sell the farm and move his to serve God and the Church. These family to a new state. This would cost more than important change that youths the bishop shall divide into as we are currently seeing in he can afford, disrupt his children’s education and many classes as he may deem proper, what about those two churches that need him? pastor education – makaccording to their number, age, and Well, God provides...A neighbor tells him about progress in ecclesiastical discipline, and the Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT)! ing theological training shall, when it appears to him opportune, less costly, more conveassign some of them to the ministry of At ILT he finds he can take classes online and nient, and closer to home. become thoroughly educated without the cost the churches, the others he shall keep in the college to be instructed, and he shall and disruption of having to move his family and replace by others those who have been abandon churches. ILT provides the theological withdrawn, so that the college may be a perpetual seminary education; his congregations become his “seminary of residence,” of ministers of God. And that they may be better trained in and the proclamation of the gospel continues uninterrupted. Is this the aforesaid ecclesiastical discipline, they shall forthwith and not a godsend for this poor, hardworking fellow? Amen amen. God always wear the tonsure and the clerical garb; they shall study has chosen to plant the Institute of Lutheran Theology with its cergrammar, singing, ecclesiastical computation, and other useful tificate program and its graduate school. ILT brings the classroom arts; shall be instructed in the Sacred Scripture, ecclesiastical to your room and the seminary to your congregation. Together books, the homilies of the saints, the manner of administering (with the generous donations of our supporters) we fulfill the 2 the sacraments... dreams, hopes and ambitions of future clergy and the congregations who call them. I am proud to be a part of this team, and encourage It is of interest to note that one of the motivating factors in the you to be a part, too. calling of the Council of Trent was the works of Dr. Luther. His call for reform inspired the Catholic Church to reexamine many of its 1 H. J. Schroeder, Canon and Decrees of the Council of Trent: Original Text with beliefs and practices.

So our original seminaries were centers teaming with adolescent boys – what a handful of students to deal with! Today, we find that schools of theology and seminaries host men and women who have already achieved their bachelor’s degree. But there is even a more important change that we are currently seeing in pastor education – making theological training less costly, more convenient, and closer to home.

English Translation (St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1941), 175.

2 Ibid, 175-176.

Doug Dillner, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Dean of Institutional Assessment and Accreditation, and Registrar ddillner@ilt.org

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The Cross is God’s Controlling Word

by Rev. Douglas V. Morton

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn... ...Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

However, people like me who want to be in control inevitably run into a problem. They soon discover they cannot control everything. Actually, the only person in control of everything is God. In our baptism this God claims us for his own and makes us his children. This God takes away all condemnation from us in Christ. Nothing ever surprises or confuses him.

‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; People who think God is sitting in heaven wringing his hands, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ wondering what will happen and hoping for the best, end up denying some very important truths about God. First, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through they deny his omnipotence, the fact that God our Father has him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor infinite power.1 Second, they end up denying that God is angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor eternal. Eternal not only means God has no beginning and powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, no end.2 It also means God is not bound by time because he will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus is the creator of time. Genesis states, “In the beginning, God our Lord.” -- Romans 8:31-39 (ESV) created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1; ESV). The word “beginning” is a time word. The implication from this verse I like to be in control of things. For instance, I like to drive is that there was a time when there was no time. I have to use because then I’m in control of the car. I feel safer. This is one a time word to describe something outside of time. Try to of the reasons why I’m not thrilled with flying. For some wrap your mind around that one! Time came into existence strange reason pilots won’t let me into the cabin to help them when God created it. Thus, God is not bound or controlled fly the plane! My desire to be in control means I like to do by time. “To Him,” writes Lutheran theologian Henry Eyster things myself rather than delegate them to people. The reason Jacobs, “past, present and future are one Now. Nothing can is simple. If I am the one doing it, then I know it will get be past or future in One, whose life continues the same and done my way. unchanged.”3 God is not some kind of divine spectator who

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waits to see what will happen next. Nor is He someone who looks into the future to see what will take place. God is he “who is and who was and who is to come” (Rev. 1:4) all at the same time.

To treat God as some kind of spectator, as one who is not in ultimate control of his universe, is to engage in what some theologians label “Finite Godism.” This is the kind of God proclaimed by Rabbi Harold Kushner in his best selling book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.4 Rabbi Kushner writes, “I believe in God. But I do not believe the same things about Him that I did years ago, when I was growing up or when I was a theological student. I recognize His limitations. He is limited in what he can do by laws of nature and by the evolution of human nature and human moral freedom.”5 Kushner’s God is someone who might want to do certain things, but cannot because he is not all-powerful. He is bound by certain limits. People come to this type of conclusion by reasoning the following way.

“1. If God were all-powerful, he could destroy evil.

2. If God were all-good, he would destroy evil.

3. But evil has not been destroyed.

4. Therefore, either God does not exist or he is limited.

5. But there is evidence that God exists.

6. Therefore, God must be limited.”6

they experienced suffering and pain. Psalm 73 is a good example of someone who asked these questions in a time of suffering.8 Questions come, and we often try to make sense out of it all by coming up with some kind of ‘logical’ answer.

However, our answers tend to be mere speculation and really do not help any in the long run.

Turning to Scripture, we find the Apostle Paul will have none of this speculation. Why? Because it gets people nowhere. When dealing with suffering and God’s power, Paul has us look, not at the Hidden God, but straight into the face of the God who is revealed to us in Jesus Christ (Deus Revelatus). Here is where we see God as he wants to be seen and as we need to see him. The late Anglican writer John Stott brings out the importance of looking at human suffering in light of the Jesus of the cross. He writes: “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross’. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?” Stott continues: “He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ. . . is God’s only self-justification in such a world’ as ours.”10

Rabbi Kushner embraces this logic.

Martin Luther put it this way: “Now it is He writes, “I can worship a God who not sufficient for anyone, and it does him The cross takes out of our hates suffering but cannot eliminate no good to recognize God in his glory and it more easily than I can worship a majesty, unless he recognizes him in the hands the control we think 11 God who chooses to make children we have and puts the control humility and shame of the cross.” “True suffer and die, for whatever exalted theology and recognition of God,” continreason.”7 It sounds so caring and many where control needs to be: ues Luther, ‘are in the crucified Christ...”12 Christians would sympathize with this in the nail-scarred hands of So, when Paul speaks of suffering and an reasoning. While they publically conuncertain future, he speaks of it by the the crucified Christ. fess God is all-powerful and in control light of the Christ of the cross, because of everything, in reality they hold to only in this Christ can we see that God a type of Finite Godism in order to has everything under control. save God the embarrassment of being an all-powerful God who does not use his power in a way they think he should God gained the victory through the seeming defeat of be using it. “If God were both all powerful and all loving he Christ on the cross. There the righteous suffered the fate of would not let my wife die of such a terrible disease or let my the unrighteous so that the unrighteous might gain the life daughter be killed in a car accident!” People who reason this of the righteous. “For our sake he made him to be sin who way are engaging in what Martin Luther called a “Theology knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousof Glory.” They are trying to look into what Luther calls the ness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21; ESV). God deals with our sin at Hidden God (Deus Absconditus). This means they end up the cross of Christ and we are set free. The cross of Christ is in speculation as they seek to develop theories about how a actually where God’s power resides. This means “the word good, loving, and all-powerful God can exist in the midst of of the cross” has the power to save people. “ For the word of a world filled with tremendous suffering and pain. Don’t get the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who me wrong. I understand how pain and suffering can cause a are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18: person to think this way. I have personally experienced the ESV). Out of Christ’s suffering and death flows life. Thus, questioning of God when tragedy stalked my life and family.

Paul can say, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He Even the Psalm writers asked these kind of questions when who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

(Rom. 8:32b-32; ESV).

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Paul argues from the greater to the lesser. If God is for us in Christ, then no one can be against us. If God gave his Son for us, then he certainly can deal with the other things in our lives. If God has made us right with himself through Christ, then no one, not even the law, can charge us with sin. If God has taken care of our greatest need, then he certainly will also take care of our other needs. Thus, the cross of Christ is God’s guarantee that nothing can separate us from his love for us in Christ (Rom. 8:39).

The God who takes the death of Christ and gives us life through it guarantees that he can take any situation and redeem it. The proof is the cross. In the cross God changed the course of history for our benefit. As a matter of fact, the cross shows us that God is truly in control of everything.

Thus, the “word of the cross” reminds us that there is a purpose to which we have been called. “And we know,” writes Paul, “that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28; ESV).

God calls and brings us to faith in and through “the word of the cross.” Because of this we are assured of a very important truth: “No accident of history made us His; therefore there are no ‘accidents’ in our history anymore. He was in charge, and He is in charge; all the ‘accidents’ of history are His working for our good.”13 Speculation does not tell us these things. Rather, we learn it from God’s revelation of himself in the cross. Furthermore, God brings this to us through a preacher whom he sends us.

Going through intense suffering often causes us to wonder if God truly loves and cares for us. Suffering often tempts us to think that God is “out to get us” for something we have done or failed to do. During times such as these, our only defense is the cross of Christ that declares to us that God does love and cares for us. The cross shouts, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8; NASB). The cross even declares that God can redeem our sufferings and hardships.

Ultimately, the cross is God’s proof that He is in control.

It assures us that nothing can slip through God’s hands or avoid his redeeming grace.

The cross takes out of our hands the control we think we have and puts the control where control needs to be: in the nail-scarred hands of the crucified Christ. In him God has turned death into life. In him God has taken on the worst that could happen to us and redeemed it. We can rest in the Christ of the cross, knowing that God is still in control, that his purpose will prevail even though we do not have all the answers. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11; ESV). And, “For my

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thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9; ESV).

Today God brings Christ and His cross to us in such things as the words of the preacher, the waters of Baptism, or the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. Most people would see these things as weak and poor substitutes for the power of God. Yet it is precisely through these means that God has promised to be in control. So, as much as I might want to be in control, I am learning it really doesn’t matter whether I am or not. What matters is that God is the one in control. When I doubt this, all he has to do is show me the nail-scarred hands of Jesus. There I find that God truly has everything under control.

“For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37; ESV).

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2; ESV).

3 Henry Eyster Jacobs, A Summary of the Christian Faith (Philadelphia: The United Lutheran Publication House, 1905), 25.

4 Kushner writes: “Are you capable of forgiving and loving God even when you have found out that He is not perfect, even when He has let you down and disappointed you by permitting bad luck and sickness and cruelty in His world, and permitting some of those things to happen to you? Can you learn to love and forgive Him despite His limitations. . .?” [Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (New York: Avon, 1981), 148.]

5 Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, 134.

6 Norman L. Geisler & William D. Watkins, Worlds Apart: A Handbook on World Views. 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989), 188.

7 Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, 134.

8 For some “Why” questions in the Psalms, see Psalm 10:1, 22:1, 42:9, 43:2, 44:24, 74:1, 88:14.

9 John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, Illinois, 1986), 335.

10 Ibid, 336.

11 Martin Luther, “Heidelberg Disputation” in Luther’s Works, eds.

Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann (St. Louis: Concordia and Philadelphia: Fortress, 1958-86), 31:52-53.

12 Ibid, 53.

13 Martin H. Franzmann, Concordia Commentary: Romans (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1968), 153.

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The Rev. Douglas V. Morton is Director of the Certificate Programs and Theological Publications dmorton@ilt.org

A Crib Sheet for Trinitarian Study

by Dr. George Tsakiridis

The doctrine of the Trinity is a theological conceptualization that is often repeated but seldom understood amongst church-goers today. The Trinity refers to God as one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In this article I’d like to present a few important ideas about the Trinity that might work as a shorthand “crib sheet” for Christians who want to remember what the Trinity is and why it is important to our faith. First, the Trinity is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, but that doesn’t mean that the concept isn’t present there. Second, the formation of the doctrine of the Trinity took a long while – most of the fourth century. The Council of Nicaea was not the final word. Third, the Trinity is an essential doctrine for the Christian faith and should not be dismissed as peripheral to the faith of Christianity.

It may surprise some Christians, but the word ‘Trinity’ is not specifically used in the Bible. That said, we find numerous examples of the three persons of the Trinity in the New (and possibly even Old) Testament. For purposes of space, allow me to mention a couple from the New Testament that equate Jesus Christ with God the Father. The first is from John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (NRSV). The Word refers to Jesus Christ, God the Son. If you speak with a Jehovah’s Witness, they will be happy to tell you that this verse is a mistranslation, and that the original Greek does not contain a definite article. In other words, the verse says the Word is “a god.” This is because they do not properly translate the Greek grammatical construction in this passage. That said, people have tried to undermine the divinity of Christ through misrepresentation of this verse, but it still holds true. Second, in John 8:58 Jesus states, “…‘Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am’” (NRSV). This is a direct allusion to Moses and the burning bush, where God reveals Himself. In saying this, Jesus is equating Himself with God, a very powerful linkage. There are also mentions of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, but as with the early creeds, there is much less exposition on this person of the Trinity.

That said, what about those creeds? In the fourth century, there were a number of developments that solidified the doctrine of the Trinity for the Church. The first was the acceptance of Christianity as a viable religion for the Roman Empire. Constantine changed the religious landscape with this announcement. Second, the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 defined the Trinity for the Church. The Nicene Creed is still an essential part of worship and doctrine today. Third, and building on Nicaea, the Council of Constantinople in AD 381 was the gathering that solidified our doctrine of the Trinity.

Between the years of 325 and 381, despite the Nicene formula, there was much debate about the nature of the Trinity.

Arius, the now labeled heretic, believed that Jesus was not God, but the first being created. There was much debate in the Church over this point, even after Nicaea, but the Council of Constantinople laid this to rest. The Nicene Creed we have today was influenced by this council.

All of this said, why is the Trinity important for Christians today? Well, first, it is important to know God as He has been revealed to us. The Early Church councils delineate what had already been revealed through Scripture. If you believe in Christian revelation beyond the natural world, the Trinity is a part of that revelation. Second, the Trinity defines Christian theology apart from other quasi-Christian movements, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who repeat the error of Arius in denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. If a “Christian” movement does not claim the Trinity, it is definitively not Christian. Third, the heart of Christianity is hope through Christ’s death and resurrection. Undermining the Trinity undermines the basis of our hope in Christ, the God-man on which our faith rests. In the end, the Trinity is a foundational doctrine for our faith, and should be celebrated as such.

Dr. George Tsakiridis is an adjunct professor for the graduate programs at ILT.

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Christian Education as the Honoring of Baptism

by Dr. Frederick W. Baltz

“Pastoral Advisory: The Enemy has plans for your children—do you?”

The above statement appears on the cover of George Barna’s, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions: Why Children Should Be Your Church’s #1 Priority. That pastoral advisory arrested my attention. George Barna is a highly-respected market researcher whose Barna Group has served The Disney Channel, Visa, and the military, to name but a few. Because he is an Evangelical Christian, Barna has used the substantial means available to him to conduct research relevant to the churches. His resources have been available for decades now. What pastor hasn’t heard of George Barna or used his books?

In Transforming Children, Barna makes a statement just as arresting as the pastoral advisory on the cover. He says that if he had his career to do over, he would focus on children, and not on adults.

He has learned from his research that children who do not have a formed faith by age 13 are highly unlikely ever to find that faith later. He is right about that, and we should all pay close attention.

We are looking at a crisis in passing on “the faith once delivered to the saints.” Young families and children are walking away from churches and from believing their message about Jesus. We must be aware of this challenge, and we must meet it!

But with all due respect to George Barna, who truly has helped us in many ways, I think he might have come to his epiphany about children much sooner had he been identified with the Lutheran tradition instead of his own. Barna uses researchers’ terms and methods. That comes as no surprise. The Barna Group only considers someone to be born again who has (1) made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still relevant in their life today, and (2) chosen the following response from a list of seven options: “When I die, I will go to Heaven because I have confessed my

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sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior.” Barna’s further definition of an evangelical Christian goes beyond this to include nine identifiable characteristics. Clearly, if you must be born again to enter the Kingdom, and if born again means what the Barna Group says it does, children will be an afterthought. Only adults can “accept Christ.” (Barna seems to put the minimum age at 5.)

There is another way of becoming born again. It’s the Bible’s way.

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Peter said this at Pentecost when his convicted listeners asked him what they should do. An analysis of the Greek yields these points:

• Adults are to repent, and are called to do so.

• Even those whom we would think too young to repent are to be baptized. (The “every one of you” pertains to the call to be baptized, and is separate from the call to repentance according to the syntax of the sentence.)

• This means Peter’s words require the baptism of children and even infants.

Peter continues: “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself (v. 39).” Peter includes children among the designated receivers of the promised Holy Spirit. The thought that children might be baptized was already present in Judaism. When a Gentile chose to become a Jew through a process that concluded with proselyte baptism, his infant children were baptized too.

This look at children, seen through the biblical lens, yields something quite different from the Evangelical perspective accepted by Barna. The Spirit is resident in the baptized infant even before the child can speak its first word. This is the paradigm that the Bible calls for, not just allows. Being born and being born again may be events just minutes apart.

Evangelical Christians would respond that those who baptize infants sometimes see their children grow up with no knowledge or faith, and without living in ways appropriate to being a Christian.

Baptism of infants, they would say, can be worse than meaningless, because it causes people to trust in something other than Jesus Christ. We need to listen to that critique for any truth we may find in it. But that doesn’t alter the biblical directive. The baptism of children, like the baptism of adults, is to be practiced and honored for all that it is.

Dr. Frederick W. Baltz is Director of Evangelism and Missions fbaltz@ilt.org

Graduates of ILT, Dave Wollan, John Lewis, and Becky Hand, will lead the breakout sessions.

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In the small school I attended we had a wonderful teacher who taught one of the more difficult courses. On the first day the class met he said: “Everyone has an ‘A’ in this class…everyone…all you have to do is keep it.” Did that make a difference? I think it did; I still remember it, anyway. When baptized children are treated as Christians already, not Christians-to-be, it matters. In our baptism we have already received the fullness of our salvation. In Christ, in whom we have been baptized, we are already “Grade A.” The desired outcome is for us to live as disciples, and by its very definition discipleship must be taught. Thus, educating children is the proper and necessary next step after baptism. They must be taught because they are ready. Providing the best Christian education we can is the way to honor baptism. Then we may say our Amen to the words of Paul: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).”

The Institute of Lutheran Theology invites you to serious theological reflection on the topic of evangelism. We will explore what it means to proclaim the gospel in today’s world. Main presenters include: Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt (President of ILT), Dr. Eugene Bunkowske (Chair of the ILT Board), and Rev. Kip Tyler (Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Master, Omaha, NE)

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We believe that baptism brings real change to the baptized. The Spirit enters the life of the baptized. The baptized is granted citizenship in the Kingdom. The baptized lives in a state of grace; sin is forgiven. Because of the changes God brings about through baptism, baptism needs to be followed by Christian education. That is what parents and sponsors promise to do. Christian education is the proper honoring of baptism. Otherwise it is like planting a precious seed, and then neglecting to water it until it withers and dies.

That’s not the fault of the seed, nor of the planter, but of whoever was responsible for what happened next.

October 4-5, 2014 Des Moines, IA Iowa Events Center

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If we believe this, then every baptized child is not just a hopedfor future saint, but a saint already. Is it any wonder that we see in the Lutheran tradition a history of parochial schools alongside churches, teaching even the smallest children? It is a history that flows from Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, meant for all those of the household including the children. They were to learn as they were able the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and what the Sacraments were. The purpose of their learning these things was not so they might be Christians someday, but because they were Christians already, every day.

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Brookings, SD 57006

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Learning to Follow by Rev. Moe Redding Light of Christ Lutheran Church, Gilbert AZ “Have you noticed there is a huge market for books on leadership? And yet, how many books are there teaching us how to follow? Only one, as far as I know: the Bible. Jesus is very clear: we are to make disciples of all nations. “Disciple” means follower...”

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• Pastor Scott Grorud - Small Catechism • Dr. Buddy Mendez - Communication & Relationships

“Who Knows How God May Use Them?”: Luther and the Reform of Education, continued from page 7

In his second point Luther writes, “It is not necessary that all boys become pastors, preachers, and schoolmasters.”14 Civil authorities were needed as well, and they also needed to be educated. Furthermore, a boy who has studied Latin, but later learned a trade and became a craftsman, could still later serve as a pastor or in some other service of the world.15 “Who knows how God may use them,”16 Luther wrote. He saw training “in many languages” as very important.17 Such knowledge, wrote Luther, would not hurt a young person’s capacity to earn a living. “On the contrary, he can rule his house all the better because of it, and besides, he prepared for the office of preacher or pastor if he should be needed.”18 Luther’s ideas on education went beyond education for the select few boys and young men. It extended to a wide variety of people.

Something that would have a profound effect on society was his advocating for “the formation of schools for all children, boys and girls.”19 He would write, “Even women and children can now learn from German books and sermons more about God and Christ—I am telling the truth!—than all the universities, foundations, monasteries, the whole papacy, and all the world used to know.”20 Luther’s vision for education may be summed up in his insistence that the chief duty of those in authority is the care of young people and the maintenance of good schools for the good of all.21 It is the duty of every Christian, writes Luther, to espouse the cause of faith and defend it from error. For this to happen, it must be taught in the home. However, since not every parent could do this kind of teaching, it was important for every community to have a good school. A “believing understanding” of Scripture was the shared foundation for civil authorities and the people. Schools were necessary to transmit this knowledge from generation to generation. A community that had this understanding as its basis depended on the Word preached properly and the listener approaching the hearing (and reading) of the Word in faith. This meant schools. Luther knew that if his reform in the church was to last beyond a generation or two, then it required the rebooting of the educational system.

Luther did not engage in education reform by himself. He enlisted the help of Philip Melanchthon when Philip first arrived at Wittenberg. They worked together on educational reform and this included the extremely important Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony. This document served as a teaching manual and model for what was to come. However, Melanchthon was not the only one who proved to be a blessing when it came to educational reform. Almost the entire Luther circle were colleagues at one time at Wittenberg University. Luther also used former students who became pastors, chaplains, lawyers and teachers in furthering his educational reform.

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Luther discovered that the state of the clergy, as well as education in general, was rather dismal.22 Many clergy were barely literate.

Parish conditions were dismal. Many of the clergy lived in poverty. On top of this, many people misunderstood their new freedom in the Gospel and lived lives far from being models for their community’s youth. Luther correctly estimated that the success of the reform movement lay in educating the next generation. Pastors, too, need more education in order for this to happen.

In 1529 Luther produced the Small and Large Catechisms. He also revised the liturgy, wrote new hymns and Postils,23 and translated the Bible into German. He was a genuine pioneer in these areas.

Many of the things we take for granted barely existed before he put his stamp on them.

Hymns were nothing new, but Luther turned them into a teaching tool. Luther wrote them in the vernacular and used melody well.

In the singing of them, the people learned and remembered the words.

Few have matched Luther’s impact on preaching. His Postils served not only to teach a generation of preachers on how to preach, but they also taught good theology at the same time.

Also, the Postils could be read by a layperson if a pastor or good preacher was unavailable.

The Small Catechism helped spread the vision of a priesthood of all believers where the head of the house owned the responsibility of the Christian formation of all who lived under his care.

Luther’s hymns, Postils, catechisms, as well as his translation of the Bible, were translated by international students into their own languages. This helped to jumpstart the reform of faith and education in their native countries.

Martin Luther said the chief purpose in life is to care for the young. He told parents that it was their solemn duty to teach their children – first in the home, and then in the school. Youth who exhibited a special giftedness were told to continue their education as the future rests with the young. He wrote the following in his Large Catechism: “We cannot perpetuate these and other teachings unless we train the people who come after us and succeed us in our office and work, so that they in turn may bring up their children successfully. Thus the Word of God and the Christian church will be preserved.”24 He knew the future of the reform movement relied on teaching the next generation.

We at the Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT) understand the importance of education when it comes to the training of pastors, teachers and other church workers. Luther called on the people of his time to go back to the sources (ad fontes) and to derive their understanding of God and the Christian Life from Scripture and Scripture alone (sola Scriptura). This is our goal also. Luther knew the importance of a scripturally founded education. So do we at

ILT. Will you join us in this endeavor as we seek to educate Scripturally sound pastors, teachers and other church workers for the well-being of the church and for the generations to come?

1 LW 54:452. [LW = Luther’s Works (St. Louis: Concordia and Philadelphia: Fortress, 1958-86)].

2 Marilyn J. Harran, Martin Luther: Learning for Life (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1997), 164. This is an excellent book to read in order to understand Martin Luther’s view of and role in education.

3 The 95 Theses proposed changes in church practice that were so threatening to the status quo, they ended up leading to his double-ban by Pope and Emperor.

4 LW 48:26.

5 Haran, Martin Luther: Learning for Life, 164.

6 Ibid., 166.

7 Ibid., 168.

8 Andreas Bodenstein von Carlstadt, an academic colleague of Luther, would eventually go so far as to proclaim “the end of all academic titles, and thereby placing the value of higher education in question.” [Harran, Martin Luther: Learning for Life, 246.]

9 Harran, Martin Luther: Learning for Life, 176.

10 LW 45:347-378.

11 Ibid., 350.

12 LW 46: 209-258.

13 Ibid., 227, 228.

14 Ibid., 230.

15 Harran, Martin Luther: Learning for Life, 196.

16 LW 53: 63.

17 Ibid.

18 LW 46: 231-232.

19 Harran, Martin Luther: Learning for Life, 171.

20 LW 46, 232.

21 Harran, Martin Luther: Learning for Life, 270-271.

22 Ibid, 199.

23 These were collections of sermons Luther wrote for each Sunday of the church year.

24 Large Catechism, Fifth Part: The Sacrament of the Altar, paragraph 86 in The Book of Concord, trans. & ed. Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 456.

Rev. Eric Swensson International Partnerships and Marketing eswensson@ilt.org

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Seeing God

by Rev. David Patterson

As I have grown older, I have come to appreciate more and more the miracle that is the human eye. Our eyes have 130 million light sensitive rods and cones that perceive the beauty of God’s creation reflected in the light. Our eyes also have the ability to automatically elongate or compress themselves, bringing the one thing we are looking at -- whether up close or far away -- into clear focus. But what is just as amazing is what our eyes are not suited to do. Our eyes are made to see in the light and not in the darkness. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to see with the eyes of a cat, making you completely at home in the darkness?

Our eyes are made with relatively poor peripheral vision.

We see clearly what is before us, but we do not easily perceive what is not directly before us. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to see with the eyes of a deer, perceiving all around you but not focusing on what is right in front of your face? Even more amazing is the fact that our eyes are made to see in only one facet, looking at something from only one perspective at a time. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to see with the eyes of a fly, looking at something in its many facets and from many perspectives at once? But no, God made our eyes the way He wants us to see. He made our eyes to see beauty in the light. He made our eyes to focus on one thing and see it clearly. He made our eyes to see things in one facet rather than many. And as I think about the miracle of our eyes, I have to ask myself a question. If God made us to see a certain way, would He not reveal Himself to us that way? If God made our eyes to see in the light; to see particularly and clearly; and to see in one facet, then it stands to reason that this is also how He wishes us to see Him. “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5, NIV). God made our eyes to see in the light, and God has revealed Himself to us as the light of the world.

Think about that for a moment. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12, NIV).

God made us to see in the light; He made us to walk in

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that light; and He revealed Himself as that light. So why is it that, throughout the history of the Church, we have spent so much time and effort looking for God in the dark recesses of our mind? Why have we spent so much time staring into the darkness in an effort to see what God is not in order to determine for ourselves what God is, when all the time He has revealed Himself to us not only in the light that He created us to see, but also AS that very light?

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:4-5, NIV). God made our eyes to focus on one thing at a time, and God has revealed Himself as one. This oneness of God is more than a simple monotheistic statement in the face of the pluralistic world, it is a statement of how God has revealed Himself to us; how He wants us to perceive and understand Him. So why is it that, throughout the history of the Church, we have spent so much time trying to pick God apart like a frog being dissected in biology class? Why do we try so hard to exhaustively understand the various attributes of God in order to determine for ourselves what God is, when all the time He has revealed Himself to us in the way He made us to see? When I look at a friend, a loved one, a neighbor, I don’t see or try to focus on his attributes -- examining each under a microscope. When I look at a friend, a loved one, a neighbor, I see that one person, in his oneness as a friend, a loved one, a neighbor.

God made us to see one thing and God has revealed Himself to us as one, so that we can love Him wholly, with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” One of the greatest mysteries of God is His Trinitarian nature. We know that the Godhead is Trinity because God has been revealed in His Word as Trinity and God has been proclaimed as Trinity by God the Son Himself. But as much as we might know THAT God is Trinity, we are incapable of perceiving Him as Trinity. God did not make us to see in facets but to see singularly. And as God has made us to see singularly, God has

revealed Himself to us singularly through the Son. In His incarnation, God in His Trinity did not become incarnate.

Neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit became incarnate, but only the Son was revealed to us in the flesh. So why is it that, throughout the history of the Church, so much time has been spent trying to see and understand God in the fullness of His Trinity? Why do we try so hard to see God as He is in order to determine for ourselves what God is, when all the time He has revealed Himself to us in the way He made us to see? We were not made to see in many facets, but one facet only and God has revealed the very fullness of Himself to us through one facet; through God the Son.

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God made us to see Him and He revealed Himself to us in the very way He made us to see. This does not mean that we should ignore the Deus Absconditus (the hidden God), but it does mean that we should seek to know God’s hidden glory through the Deus Revelatus (the revealed God).

We can only truly see God as He has revealed Himself to us through God the Son’s incarnation, suffering, death and resurrection. We see God clearly when we see Him on the cross. This does not mean that we should turn a blind eye to God’s attributes in order to see Him in His oneness, but it does mean that we should first see Him in the one person revealed to us, God the Son made flesh in Jesus Christ. As we seek to understand God’s omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, we should understand those attributes through the person of Jesus Christ who set aside that omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence and took on limited flesh, so that He might take on humiliation, suffering, and death for our sake. We see God clearly when we see Him on the cross. This does not mean that we should ignore God’s Trinitarian nature, but it does mean that we should seek to understand the Trinitarian facets of the Godhead only through and in relation to the one facet revealed to us, God the Son. Our only legitimate access to any understanding of the Trinity is in relation to God the Son and He has proclaimed the Father and the Spirit to us. We can only see clearly in the way we were made to see and we can only thank God that He has revealed Himself to us in the way He made us to see Him. “But blessed are your eyes because they see” (Matthew 13:16, NIV).

Rev. David Patterson, MLIS Librarian dpatterson@ilt.org

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Student Spotlight: Kari Malinak

by Dale A. Swenson

Kari Malinak is a great student. “I can pursue this graduate was incredible, and was so far over my head. But I got going, degree while living in Texas,” declares Kari. “I have been a step by step, and I absorbed and learned a lot!” reflects student with the Institute of Lutheran Theology for about Malinak. three years and am about one-third of the way to the Masters of Divinity degree. First of all, I want to say the teachers Intern Kari Malinak works with Pastor Douglas Schoelles are incredible. Their amount of knowledge is crazy and they at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Haslet, TX which is know how to teach. I’d like to go faster, but really like the near Ft. Worth. Her internship began in September 2013. scheduling flexibility, for I have even “At Resurrection Lutheran Church, those arranged to take an in-depth course, who demonstrate leadership qualities “He is so complete. independently. And I did not have to are encouraged and given opportunities Knowing Him completes to exercise their leadership and grow in uproot my family.” their abilities. Kari was already on that who I am and who you While being a great student on the before she became an official intern,” are. Reading and study- path undergrad level, Kari earned her college says Pastor Schoelles. “This summer she degree in theater performance with cum ing his Word puts you has been given a lot of pastoral ministry laude accolades. In the graduate course opportunities, seeing after my middle son in communication with work with the ILT, she has earned mostly and my wife as he had appendicitis and Christ.”

A’s with the occasional B. Yet as she tells performing the funeral for the operator it, when she took her first class from the of the Farmers Market whose husband Institute of Lutheran Theology, the high level of discussion suddenly suffered a severe heart attack and died two weeks made her question herself. And the realization dawned upon later. (I am out of state at this time trying to get to some her that great students like Lou Hesse, and great teachers like writing.)”

Dennis Bielfeldt and John Rasmussen, were not born with this phenomenal amount of knowledge. “They know a lot, He continues to describe some of the ministry work Kari but had to learn it (sometime) too. Their level of knowledge has done. “She hosts a sermon text study at her house that I

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lead where she has invited a number of her friends who have attended. She has helped to organize our children’s chapel effort. She has actively participated in our relational evangelism effort at the farmers market. She is great at building relationships with people from scratch. At Worship, Kari was kind enough to become the worship coordinator. While I do most of the planning for the worship, she is the one who makes sure people are where they are supposed to be. She guides the worship assistants through the seasonal liturgical changes we make.”

“From the start, I downplayed myself. I felt I was a cheerleader for Christ and not a theologian. I joked around, and downplayed my role, but it is because I take the faith so seriously. I have a complete love for evangelism and for relationships. When a phone call comes to me seeking help, the goofiness that was upbeat is replaced by super-seriousness.

People get to know me and see that depth of faith. I hand out water to people at the Farmers Market, because Jesus is about daily living in relation with Him and people,” declares Intern Malinak.

Because Schoelles had been involved with the Institute of Lutheran Theology, Kari had discovered Resurrection Lutheran Church in her internet research. She sought out the church, which is a start-up church worshipping out of a school, her family in tow, and found a church home in the upstart.

When you ask Kari about Jesus, she says, “He is so complete. Knowing Him completes who I am and who you are.

Reading and studying his Word puts you in communication with Christ.”

“We became an intern site because Kari saw my name on a list of faculty and came to check out our church. After her family had been members of our church for over a year, she began her internship. As a congregation, we were glad to participate in that process with her,” declares Pastor Schoelles, who adds a comment about his relationship with the Institute. “I taught a continuing education course twice on “Equipping Parents to be the Spiritual Leaders”. From that I was asked to give a presentation in Canada. Dennis Biefeldt was there. We talked Post-modern philosophy and mission in a post-Christian context. We continued the conversation through a few emails. And that has led to my participation in the advisory team for the Doctor of Ministry program which has a Missiological focus on Apologetics, Evangelism, and Discipling.”

Kari was a residential student in the House of Studies event held at Lutheran Church of the Master in Omaha June 2-5, 2014. Everyone in the classroom received a hug from her, even those who declared themselves to be ‘non-huggers.’ She did not apologize for her enthusiasm in Christ Jesus that overflows. Kari is a great student.

“I am excited about the Doctor of Ministry program we are designing. The shared urgency that our design team has for this project is infectious and is in response to a communicated need that pastors want to be empowered to be missional leaders in our post-Christian context. We are working on developing a course of study that includes hands-on, in the context learning opportunities that build on the intensive study. I hope to be able to teach a course or two in this program as well as developing these Missional learning opportunities.”

His eye to the pressing needs of the future, Schoelles adds, “The confessional Lutheran church urgently needs leaders to pave the way to impact our neo-pagan society, and ILT helping to fill that need with candidates like Kari and the Missiologically focused Doctor of Ministry program.”

Kari is married to Keith Malinak, who works and provides for his family, which includes their three children. Kari is the home school teacher for their children, and she finds herself doing ministry not only at her church, but also among other home schoolers.

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A Word for the Theologian

Luther and Reason

by Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt

I have known sincere Christians who think that reason conflicts with faith. They think that the more education and knowledge one has, the less likely they are to believe in God. Simply put, the more one knows, the more one is tempted away from Christian truth. This regrettable habit of thinking sometimes assumes that since education and knowledge pertain to reason and science, and since science and faith are in conflict, knowledge and faith must be opposed as well.

When I was at the University of Iowa, I had the opportunity to coordinate a class entitled “Religion in Human Experience.” We had a number of lecturers come in from around campus to talk to our 800 assembled undergraduates. One professor lecturing each semester in our course actually had part of the solar system named after him. Dr. James Van Allen, who discovered the “Van Allen” magnetic belts around the earth, would tell our students each year that science and faith are not in conflict because science is concerned with facts and knowledge, while religion is concerned with values and emotion. Dr. Van Allen really liked religion, but was quick to point out that religion had nothing to do with reason, and hence, with what factually exits. I must admit that this way of understanding things has always left me with considerable disquiet. If our theological propositions aren’t true, then what is the point of it all? It seemed to me then, and it seems to me now, that if there is no reason in theology, then there is no truth to it either.

I taught in state universities for eighteen years, and I often encountered colleagues in the sciences who thought it odd believing Christians still existed in religion and philosophy departments.

They simply assumed that believers in God were simple-minded

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fools who were steered solely by emotion. In discussions my colleagues would often find it perplexing when I would start to talk about the value-laden nature of scientific theory. “No one has a view from the top,” I would say. “Your views are supported by presuppositions now in favor, but those presuppositions are no more (or less) true than the alternate assumptions upon which thirteenth century theology was based. Why do you think I am unreasonable, just because my views are not as popular?’’

Though I might not have convinced them, they probably thought I did not sound too simple-minded.

Lutherans sometimes hear that Martin Luther himself did not like reason, for he went so far as to call it “the devil’s whore.”1 Growing up Lutheran I heard this, and while I continued to memorize my Catechism faithfully, I secretly began to think that Luther must have been a pretty unreasonable guy, someone who against all his better rational instincts simply believed every sentence of the Bible simply and literalistically. However, when I started reading Luther seriously two decades later, I was surprised to learn how highly Luther prized human reason.

Martin Luther once likened human judgment to a little torch (lux faculae) and divine judgment to the burning sun at mid-day (sol meridie ardens).2 While Luther did not develop an overall theory of human reason (ratio), he did assume that it had its place in dealing with “things below it.”3 Accordingly, for Luther, the use of reason is connected to practical tasks like making and enforcing law and building houses, etc.4 The late great Church historian, Bernard Lohse, points to other ways in which Luther countenances the use of reason. Luther clearly believed reason could show that objections to theological doctrines are incon-

sistent.5 Moreover, he expressed a willingness to be convinced by rational arguments, especially at Worms.6 In his 1536 Disputation Concerning Man Luther even claims that reason is the greatest of all created gifts.7 It is reason (ratio) that distinguishes Adam from the beasts; reason is the image of God in human beings.8 Lohse admits that while Luther followed the Christian tradition generally in claiming that reason was rightly employed when thinking about God, he was always more sanguine about reason’s ability to say what God is not rather than what God is.9 This does not mean, however, that reason must come into conflict with revelation. Luther writes: Although the Gospel is a higher gift and wisdom than human reason, it does not alter or nullify the intelligence of reason which God himself planted in us.10 If anything is really contrary to reason, it is certainly much more against God also. For how can anything not be in conflict with heavenly truth when it is in conflict with earthly truth?11 Denis Janz concludes from this that Luther’s “fundamental position” is that “what is of God is rational, and what is rational is of God.”12 It is clear, however, that Luther, like the philosopher Immanuel Kant, always used reason in drawing the limits of human reason.

Clearly, his criticism of certain uses of reason as being inappropriate in relating oneself to God is itself a very reasonable criticism. In addition to reason’s inability to understand the nature of God, the Trinity and the Incarnation, reason can neither on its own conclude that God loves us, nor can it establish the proper path to win God’s favor. There are many ways to be reasonable, and one might reasonably contend it is more reasonable to deny that reason can access the very being of God and how we might finally come to satisfy God, than to affirm both of these things.

Graham White rightly points out that the secondary literature has often been misled by thinking ‘reason’ is a monolithic phenomenon for Luther and that whenever Luther uses the term, he means “a rational metaphysical grasp of all things divine.” Very clearly this is not the case.

It is quite clear, then, that Luther’s approach to reason was quite differentiated; he would accept some uses of its, and reject others. However, although this is seen by many Luther scholars, they generally do not have the theoretical distinctions to analyze what Luther is doing here; they cannot, for example, describe what differentiates the uses of logic which Luther accepted from the ones which he rejected, or when they attempt to do so, they do it anachronistically and inaccurately.13

My own work with Luther over the years has convinced me that Luther was a very good logician, that he understood late medieval semantic theory, and that he was completely at home in the give-and-take of rational disputation. Luther was adept at using reason, and he believed that the life of the Christian is a life of a reasonable man or woman believing in God. For him, it was reasonable to be foolish for the sake of Christ, and unreasonable not to be.14 Recently I have taken some time to study Theodor Dieter’s magisterial Der junge Luther und Aristoteles: eine historisch-systematische Untersuchung zum Verhältnis von Theologie un Philosophie. The almost 700 page German tome is not easy reading, but its reading is very rewarding. Dieter dedicates almost 200 pages to the twelve philosophical thesis of his 1518 Heidelberg Disputation, showing explicitly that Luther knew his Aristotle and that he could mount significant arguments against those who would misinterpret Aristotle for theological purposes.

Over and against such late medieval interpretations of Aristotle’s notion of matter and soul, interpretations that wrongly attempted to square Aristotle with the Christian faith, Luther argued that Aristotle could not so easily be put in service of Christianity.

Luther claimed that the “eternal agency” of the soul for Aristotle is not to be understood as an eternal, immortal soul capable of being separate from the body. Moreover, he argued the form in matter that makes a substance the substance it is, is not itself separable from the matter in which it is present, and thus must itself be somehow identical to that matter it forms. Using some rather sophisticated arguments Luther concludes that Aristotle’s metaphysics does not allow for the existence of incorporeal (or the non-bodily) reality, that ontic dimension in which one must believe if one is to regard the Church’s teachings as true. Using philosophical reason, Luther concludes that Aristotle’s metaphysics is wholly incompatible with the notion of the radical transcendence of the incorporeal God who has made human beings in His image with an eternal, incorporeal aspect that is separable at death. If one is to choose a philosopher to reconcile with Christian teaching - - a project Luther believes is fraught with deep problems - - it is far better to begin with Plato, for Plato at least knows that God, the forms of things, and the human soul are non-material. Reason can discern that Plato’s philosophy is “more heavenly” than Aristotle’s; so while philosophy does not save, those called to do theology seriously might be well-served to employ basic philosophical worldviews less inimical and more consistent with Christian truth.

But perhaps some would say that when it comes to interpreting Scripture Luther simply gives up using reason, and that he advocates we must simply believe what Scripture says no matter how intellectually difficult it might be. Luther does claim: If natural reason does not grasp it, it is nonetheless correct because faith alone grasps it. Natural reason makes heresy and error, but faith teaches and holds to the truth because it has the Holy Scriptures which neither deceive nor lie.15

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But as Beutel points out, Luther’s adherance (Beharren) to the Word of Scripture against all the objections of reason must not be interpreted as a sacrifice of the intellect (sacrificium intellectus) or a biblicistic positivism of faith (biblizistischen Glaubenspositivismus).16 It is rather a question of what one can reasonably know.

While reasonable speech has a place inside of faith, reason cannot comprehend the mystery of the Trinity.17 Therefore, a person must believe with a simple heart. In matters of faith one must rely upon the Word and not upon human reason.

The critical issue is to determine what exactly the identity conditions for “matters of faith” are. As Beutel points out, Luther calls us not merely to hold to scripture, but to dwell (blieben) within it.18 Beutel emphasizes that for Luther, the scripture is not merely an authoritative text, but a space in which man can live, and that the Word of scripture is not merely something about which one gains knowledge, but pertains to existence.19 For Luther, according to Beutel, the light of grace emboldens a person to reject the natural light of reason.20 One must reject reason when dwelling in the gospel in the same way that a snake sheds its skin when creeping into its cleft.21 Dwelling in the gospel is an intimate affair indeed, for Luther likens it to a child being conceived, nourished and born in the uterus.22

Yet this rejection of reason in the name of a grace is not unreasonable. Just as it is unreasonable for a snake to keep its skin while creeping into its cleft, or for a child to leave too soon the uterus, so is it unreasonable for men and women to live outside the Gospel, outside the sacred text in which they find meaning, purpose, being, forgiveness, hope and life eternal. Holding to Scripture is not primarily a propositional holding of isolate truths, but an immersion in a life of God’s salvific healing. Once inside the text, all logical and conceptual inferences hold rightly.23 It is a reasonable world, after all! And what could be then more appealing, more reasonable to those with post-modern sensibilities?

Is there a tension for postmoderns between reason and faith?

Yes, of course. But we find that there is in our postmodern time a similar tension between reason A and reason B, or faith C and faith D. Such tensions in life are to be expected. What we Lutherans must not expect, and what we must never say to our present post-modern context, is that Luther advocated, and Christians hold, that there is some overarching dissonance between the mind and the heart. Luther did not think there was such a tension. After all, both mind and heart are creatures of God, both are made by God, both are sinful, and both have ultimately been redeemed by God’s blessed Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt President, ILT president@ilt.org

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See, for example, LW 40:175; LW 51:374. [LW = Luther’s Works (St. Louis: Concordia and Philadelphia: Fortress, 1958-86)].

2 (Enarrationes epistolarum et euangeliorum, quas postillas vocant, 1521) WA 7, 493 ff. [WA = Martin Luther, Werke (Weimar, 1883-).

3 Nor did Luther claim reason should be dismissed from theology as some have claimed, e.g., Arnold Lunn, The Revolt Against Reason, (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1950).

4 WA 11, 272:13-24. “Darumb muß eyn furst das recht ja so fast ynn seyner hand haben als das schwerd unnd mitt eygener vernunfft messen, wenn unnd wo das recht der strenge nach zuo brauchen odder zuo lindern sey, Also das alltzeyt uber alles recht regiere unnd das uberst recht unnd meyster alles rechten bleybe die vernunfft. Gleych wie eyn hauß vatter, ob er wol bestympte zeyt und maß der erbeyt unnd speyße uber seyn gesind unnd kinder setzt, muß er dennoch solch satzunge ynn seyner macht behallten, das ers endern odder nach lassen muege, wo sich eyn fall begebe, das seyn gesinde kranck, gefangen, auffgehallten, betrogen odder sonst verhyndert wuerde, unnd nicht mit der strenge faren uber die krancken wie uber die gesunden. Das sage ich darumb, das man nicht meyne, Es sey gnuog und kostlich ding, wenn man dem geschrieben recht odder Juristen redten folget. Es gehoertt mehr datzu.” See also White, Graham. Luther as Nominalist. A Study of the Logical Methods used in Martin Luther’s Disputations in the Light of their Medieval Background, (Helsinki: Luther Agricola Gesellschaft, 1994), 59.

5 Lohse, Bernard, Ratio und Fides: eine Untersuchung über die Ratio in der Theologie Luthers (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1958), 77. See also Lohse, Bernard, Martin Luther’s Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development, trans. Roy Harrisville (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999), 196-205.

6 Lohse, Ratio und Fides, 108ff. See LW 32:112; WA 7, 838:2-8: “Since then your serene majesty and your lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.”

7 LW 34:137; WA 39 I, 175:9-15: “4. And it is certainly true that reason is the most important and the highest in rank among all things and, in comparison with other things of this life, the best and something divine. 5. It is the inventor and mentor of all the arts, medicines, laws, and of whatever wisdom, power, virtue, and glory men possess in this life. 6. By virtue of this fact it ought to be named the essential difference by which man is distinguished from the animals and other things.”

8 LW 1:112; WA 42, 85:10-13.

9 Lohse, Martin Luthers Theologie, 199. Lohse provides this quote from Luther’s 1521 Judgment on Monastic Vows, LW 44:336; WA 8, 629:23-33: “...let us go one step further and compare the monastic system with natural reason; that is, let us look at it in the plain light of nature. Even if natural reason in itself is not concerned with spiritual truth or divine activity, nevertheless, when it asserts affirmative statements (to use their jargon) its judgment is wrong, but when it asserts negative statements its judgment is right. Reason does not comprehend what God is, but it most certainly comprehends what God is not. Granted, reason cannot see what is right and good in God’s sight (faith, for instance), but it sees quite clearly that infidelity, murder, and disobedience are wrong...If anything is really contrary to reason, it is certainly very much more against God also. For how can anything not be in conflict with heavenly truth when it is in conflict with earthly truth?”

10 WA 22, 108:12-15.

11 LW 44:336.

12 See Denis Janz,“Whore or Handmaid? Luther and Aquinas on the Function of Reason in Theology,” 47-52, The Devil’s Whore: Reason and Philosophy in the Lutheran Tradition, ed. Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011), 49. Janz seems to be playing off the famous Hegelian dictum that the real is rational and the ration real.

13 White, 83. Lohse points out as well the need not to consider reason monolithically. See Lohse, Martin Luthers Theology, 196. “...all [Luther’s] theological work reflects an established as well as extensively developed view of reason and its application, so that it will not do simply to emphasize the contrast between reason and revelation. Further, on the basis of Luther’s statements it is necessary to distinguish reason’s tasks within the scientific sphere and the sphere of temporal authority, and reason in view of the relation to God.” 14 See, for instance, Dennis Bielfeldt, “Luther’s Philosophy of Language,” 61-68, The Devil’s Whore.

15 “Ob das naturlich vernunfft nit begreyhfft, das ist recht, der glawb solls alleyn 1

begreyffen, naturlich vernunfft macht ketzerey und yrthumb, glawb leret und hellt die warheytt; denn er haftet an der schrifft, die treugt noch leugt nit (WA 10 I, 1, 191:13-16)”.

16 Beutel, 225.

17 Beutel, 226.

18 Beutel, 226. See WA 10 I, 1, 193:11-22: “Aber wiltu dem boeßen feynd nit ynß netze fallen, ßo laß yhr klugelln, dunckelln und subtiliteten faren und hallt dich an diße gotliche wort, da kreuch eyn und bleyb drynnen wie eyn haß ynn seyner steynritzen; spatzirstu erauß unnd gibst dich auff yhr menschen geschwetz, ßo soll dich der feynd furen unnd tzuletzt stortzen, das du nit wissest, wo vornunfft, glawb, gott unnd du selbst bleybst. Glawb myr alß dem, der solchs erfarn und vorsucht hat und nit auß eynem topffen redt, die schrifft ist unß nit umbsonst geben; hett die vornunfft mocht recht faren, die schrifft were unß nit nodt geweßen, laß dich Arrium und Sabellium erschrecken, wilche, ßo sie ynn der schrifft blieben weren und hetten der vornunfft spatziern lassen, weren nit solchs grossen schadens anheber worden. Und unßer schullerer weren auch wol Christen, wenn sie yhr alfentzen ließen mit yhren subtiliteten und blieben ynn der schrifft.”

Beutel, 227. “. . . nicht nur der Irrtum droht hier, sondern der Verlust des Lebens.”

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid. WA 10 I, 1, 233:11-15: “Unnd muß alßo der gantz mensch ynn das Euangelium kriechen unnd alda new werden, die allte hawt außtzihen, wie die schlange thutt, wenn yhr hawtt allt wirtt, sucht sie eyn enge loch ym felß, da kreucht sie hynndurch und tzeucht ab yhr hawt selbs unnd lest sie haussen fur dem loch.”

22 WA 10, I, 1, 232:13-15: “Item, daher wirt das Euangelium gottis uter genennet, das er darynnen unß empfehet, tregt und gepiertt, wie eyn weyb eyn kind ynn yhrem uter empfeht, tregt, und gepiertt.”

23 Brian Gerrish famously argued in Grace and Reason that while all humans rightly allow natural reason to rule within the das irdische Reich (earthly kingdom), and that while all humans wrongly employ reason in trespassing on das himmlische Reich (heavenly kingdom), Christians alone employ regenerate reason to serve in the household of faith, subject to God’s Word. Reason when regenerate concerns the cognitive and intellectual aspects of faith. See Brian Gerrish, Grace and Reason, (Oxford: Clarendon University Press, 1962 ), 25-27.

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Students from around the country gathered at the Lutheran Church of the Master in Omaha, Nebraska, for the week of June 2-6, 2014 to study the book of Romans. House of Studies are designed for students to meet in person, engage in academic discussion on a specific subject, and receive credit towards their respected degree.

Those present included (pictured above from L to R) Glenn Sokolowski from Ladysmith, Wisconsin, Steve Olcott from Hutchinson, Minnesota, permanent faculty member Rev. Tim Rynearson. Kari Malinak from Haslet, Texas, Lou Hesse from Moses Lake, Washington, Fran Hill from Dubuque, Iowa, and Tim Swenson from Brookings, South Dakota.

Rev. John Lewis from Lutheran Church of the Master hosted and presented students with a book to further study the book of Romans.

The next House of Studies event is scheduled for January 5-9, 2015, in El Paso, Texas. Professor Rynearson will explore 1 John. Contact Rev. Timothy Swenson (tswenson@ilt.org) to register.

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Presidential Convocation Opening of the 2014-2015 Academic Year

“Let us live each day in the shadow of divine enveloping grace, a grace that makes new each day, a grace that keeps the center, a day that keeps us humble in the face of awesome responsibility...”

-August 21- Students, faculty, staff and friends viewed the Presidential Convocation, officially opening the 2014-2015 academic year at the Institute of Lutheran Theology. Dr. Jonathan Sorum, Dean of Academic Affairs, began with a welcome, Rev. Timothy J. Swenson, Dean of the Chapel, led a brief order of worship and Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt delivered a presidential address.

“In truth, the Institute of Lutheran Theology does not simply have students, faculty, staff and friends, but rather is its students, faculty, staff and friends,” President Dennis Bielfeldt said in his opening remarks. Dr. Bielfeldt highlighted students, faculty, staff and programs that ILT offers. He also discussed how online technology has made it possible to engage in theological education with neighbors around the world.

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“ILT is an assembled community of the called, a community of neighbors. ILT is thus a called community of near dwellers, working together for a lofty, common purpose.” Dr. Bielfeldt also said that ILT’s online campus makes a personal impact in

the lives of the students, faculty and staff. “At ILT we have real professors that know their student’s face, voice and handwriting. At ILT there are real students who know their professor’s voice and face, as well as the face and voice of everybody in the class. At ILT students become friends with each other, oftentimes friends for life. At our school students share their hopes, concerns and fears with each other, with teachers, mentors, or with our Student Life staff. We care about each and every student and we take very seriously that you have entrusted your theological education to us. We are here to help in any way that we can.

We are neighbors; we dwell near you.”

Dr. Bielfeldt extended a welcome to all students, both new and returning. “We are excited to have you, students! While you may not be walking around our Brookings campus, you will nonetheless be in our bookstore, in our library, and in our various classrooms. You will have many experiences that students of residential institutions have. For instance, you will like some of your professors very much and some not so much! You will wait anxiously for your grades to be posted. You will find lively conversation with fellow students and faculty and make friends for life! We welcome all of you here!”

Dr. Bielfeldt concluded his 35 minute presentation with the following words. “So let us now on this day pledge ourselves anew to God’s task of building this school. To have such a task is a blessed thing. Let us live each day in the shadow of divine enveloping grace, a grace that makes new each day, a grace that keeps the center, a day that keeps us humble in the face of awesome responsibility. May God’s love and grace be with the board, staff, faculty, students and friends of the Institute of Lutheran Theology in the academic year 2014-2015.”

Visit www.ilt.org to watch the entire Presidential Convocation!

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