April 2004 VOL. 123 NO. 4

www.lcms.org/witness

Easter: Faith, Funerals and the FutureAlso: Luther and the JewsA Look at ‘The Purpose Driven Life’

Easter: Faith, Funerals and the FutureAlso: Luther and the JewsA Look at ‘The Purpose Driven Life’

FeaturesFeatures

3 LifelineToby Joeckel

4 Letters

14 National News

22 Searching ScriptureLoraine Rathman

24 Notices

26 Family Counselor

27 Q&A/Shedding Some Light

28 From the PresidentGerald B.Kieschnick

WITNESST h e � u t h e r a n

A Magazine for the laypeople of the lutheran church — missouri synod

april 2004

Official periodical of The Lutheran Church—MissouriSynod through the Board for CommunicationServices, Dr. Martin G. Schramm, chairman; Rev. J.Thomas Lapacka, executive director.

Staff: Rev. David L. Mahsman, executive editor; Don Folkemer,managing editor; Joe Isenhower Jr., news editor; Paula SchlueterRoss, contributing editor; John Krus, senior designer; CorinneLatimer, marketing manager; Pam Burgdorf, coordinator;Marcy Hanewinkel, advertising sales; Carla Dubbelde, editori-al manager, district editions; Karen Higgins, editorial assistant;editorial office: 1333 S. Kirkwood Rd., St. Louis, MO 63122-7295;(314) 965-9917, Ext. 1228.

© 2004 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Reproductionof a single article or column for parish use only does not requirepermission of THE LUTHERAN WITNESS. Such reproductions,however, should credit THE LUTHERAN WITNESS as thesource. Cover images and “Shedding Some Light” cartoons arenot reproducible without permission. Also, photos credited tosources outside the LCMS are not to be copied.

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A LOOK AT THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFEby Paul R.Naumann

Here are some points worth keeping in mindwhen reading Rick Warren’s best-selling book.

OUR FAITH, OUR FUNERALS, OUR FUTUREby Jeffrey Gibbs

The first Easter and the bodily resurrection of Christ is full of meaning for our future.

SUFFER THE LITTLE ONESby Eunice Kuring Lehmacher

Youngsters learn a lot more aboutJesus and worship in church than itmay appear.

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How I Spent My VacationPage 3

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FATHER FORGIVE THEMby Armand J.Boehme

The power of the Gospel changes lives.2020

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WITH THE CROSS OF JESUSby Jerry Doellinger

Harlan Ketelsen has made more than150,000 small wooden crosses.

1212LUTHER AND THE JEWSby Uwe Siemon-Netto

“The Passion of the Christ”has againraised the issue of how Christians havetreated Jews —and of Martin Luther’srole in that history.

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Letters

and near death, assured Him,“Today, you will be with Me inParadise.” This assurance wasn’tonly for the thief, but it is also for uswho in faith are repentant sinners.

Rev. Nabil Nour

Armour, S.D.

IN THE FILM, MORE ATTENTION IS DRAWN

to the violent screen images than tothe words. For the sake of dramaticimpact, Greek, Aramaic and Latinare used in the dialogue. In a New

Yorker article, Mel Gibson describesthat impact: “So that’s what thelanguage thing did for me. It tooksomething away from you—youhad to depend upon the image.”“The language thing” is reduced to asupporting role.

Images of the Passion have oftenbeen used for devotional purposes.Seeing the risen Christ certainlystrengthened the disciples, butJesus asked Thomas, “Have youbelieved because you have seenme?” Then He continued for thosewho would believe through theWord proclaimed, without seeingthe Word made flesh, “Blessed arethose who have not seen and yetbelieve.”

Images of the crucified and risenChrist inspire devotion. But onlyGod’s Word explains why He wascrucified and raised. After theimages are dark, it is “the languagething” that will proclaim the GoodNews.

Carol Geisler

Manchester, Mo.

TAKING THE REALITY OF THE HORROR

out of the story serves only toreduce the cost of the sacrifice thatJesus made. I for one never want to

DR. JAMES BACHMAN (“THERE’S MORE TO

the Story,” Feb. ’04) fails to realizehow much we who live out here inthe real world of anti-Christian senti-ment need this movie, “The Passionof the Christ.” If one is surroundedby like-minded believers, it is easy toforget how different we Christiansare from the rest of the world.

Let me tell you why we need thismovie. For once, we have a moviethat speaks clearly and withoutregret the Word of God. For once,we have someone in Mel Gibsonwho is not afraid of Hollywood andits Christian-hating liberals.Although we failed with the movie“Luther,” we have another chance toshow Hollywood that God can sell.

Mark Einspahr

Salt Lake City, Utah

I WAS MOVED BY THE MOVIE. FIRST, AS A

Christian man who has known theScriptures and tries to live by them.Second, as a theologian and pastorwho is privileged, honored andblessed to be able to speak everyday with others about this gift oflove. And finally as a Palestinian,who knows the language spoken onthe screen in the original languagesused in the first century. When someof these words were spoken, myheart ached and tears flowed.

Tears flowed easily. The reason isthat I was right next to Him on thecross. That is, because of my sins,Jesus was nailed to that woodenbeam. Because of my sins, He tookall of the torture, humiliation, hatred,spitting and eventually death.

In one riveting scene, the thief onthe cross said, “Lord, remember mein Your kingdom.” Jesus, bleeding

‘The Passion of the Christ’

For once, we have a movie thatspeaks clearly and without regret theWord of God.

Mark Einspahr

Salt Lake City, Utah

stop hearing the account in its hor-rific, bloody detail. To understandwhat my sin did to put Jesus throughthis kind of suffering and deathhelps me understand the price Hepaid that I won’t have to pay, and myheart goes out to Him in love andthanksgiving.

Ron VonBehren

Round Rock, Texas

The blind see

I WAS THRILLED TO SEE “WELCOMING

Those Who Are Blind” (Jan. ’04). Ihave been legally blind since 1992and am director for the outreachmission to the blind at Our SaviorChurch, Baraboo, Wis. Since April2003, we have raised awarenessabout the blind functioning in thearea, and have seen an increase fromfive to eight in the number of visuallyimpaired and blind participants. Eventhough our congregation numbersabout 80, the support of our pastor(Rev. Tim Anderson), committeemembers and those who help behindthe scenes have allowed God’s Wordto do God’s work.

Having a Christian refuge for theblind and visually impaired changesattitudes. I know it has mine. Notonly is the world a nicer place, but itallows each individual to explore hisor her own capabilities rather thanbeing stuck in the uncertainty of adisability. With the help of God, theLCMS, my church family and sur-rounding support system, the sky isthe limit.

Albert D. Schmiege

Baraboo, Wis.

A chapter from ActsREADING THE FEBRUARY “LIFELINE”article, “Blessings on the Battlefield”by Chaplain Lt. Michael P. Moreno,seemed to me less like reading anarticle on the Iraqi War and more likean excerpt from the Book of Acts.This is a story of the spiritual war thatis being fought. And with Baptismafter Baptism after Baptism, the

Photo courtesy of Newmarket FilmsTHE LUTHERAN WITNESS

enemy is being defeated. And we allpraise God that “day by day theLord added to their number thosewho were being saved” (Acts 2:47b).

Rev. Martin J. Schultheis

Williston Park, N.Y.

Reading about home

I RECENTLY HAD THE PRIVILEGE AND JOY

of visiting Sudan for the 10thanniversary of the EvangelicalLutheran Church in Sudan. What a

letter through which he wanted tobe sure he has his mind right regard-ing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

(4) Which country has beenexpanding its borders for decadesby military action into neighboringcountries and killing thousands,using fighter planes, tanks and bull-dozers made in the USA? A. Israel.B. Palestinian Territory.

(5) Which country invades itsneighbors, destroying homes andagricultural crops, including hun-dreds-of-years-old olive groves andthen erects a wall to protect cap-tured territory? A. Israel. B.Palestinian Territory.

(6) Which country askedPresident Bush last year for moreforeign aid? A. Israel. B. PalestinianTerritory.

David Furholmen

Roselle, Ill.

delightful surprise I had when Inoticed what one of the Africanmen in southern Sudan was read-ing—The Lutheran Witness! Heseemed fascinated by the articlepreviewed on the cover: “Standwith Africa” (Nov. ’03). I’m not surehow he got this copy of the Witness,but I thought you would be interest-ed in knowing that the issueencouraging us to “Stand withAfrica” was read with great interestby people in the very heart of Africaitself.

Rev. Daniel Preus

St. Louis, Mo.

Rev. Daniel Preus is first vice

president of The Lutheran

Church—Missouri Synod.— Ed.

Three more questionsI THINK QUESTIONS 4, 5 AND 6 WERE

omitted from Rev. John Kayser’s

APRIL 2004

by Jeffrey Gibbs

“You Christians are pathetic—yourfaith is worthless, and you are still cov-ered with your filthy sins!”

Those are words you might expect from anenemy of the church. But they came from the apos-tle Paul. They were his way of declaring just howcrucial the first Easter was. His exact words were:“If Christ is not risen your faith is futile; you are stillin your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17).

The first Easter was essential; the Resurrectionof our Lord is the foundation on which our wholereligion stands or falls.

This Easter-time we again have the chance tolearn to rejoice in truths that we believe. I’d like tofocus on three aspects of the marvelous Eastermessage: Our Faith, Our Funerals, and Our Future.

Easter for Our FaithThe first Easter, like the first Good Friday, was a

real event that really happened at a certain time andplace. It wasn’t an idea—it was an event. How shallwe describe what took place? A two-word phrase cancapture it: bodily resurrection. The first Easter was thefirst and only time in history—so far!—that a personexperienced such a bodily resurrection.

Jesus’ Easter event was bodily. The same body thatwas nailed to the cross, died and was buried in a tomb cutout of rock—that same human body—experienced res-urrection. By late Friday afternoon, the tomb was full of acorpse. Jesus was dead, and Joseph and Nicodemusbravely buried Him while grieving women watched. Then,by early Sunday morning, the tomb was empty. That samebody was no longer there. Jesus’ resurrection was bodily.

Let me emphasize this point in order to turn asidewhat you sometimes hear from skeptical writers withregard to something that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15,his great chapter that deals with our resurrection. Yes,that’s right, 1 Corinthians 15 is not really about Jesus’

resurrection as much as it is about ours. But I’ll returnto that in a minute.

In 1 Cor. 15:35, Paul anticipates a natural question:“But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised? Withwhat sort of body do they come?’” As he is answeringthat question, Paul makes this statement about our res-urrection body that is also true of Jesus’ resurrectedbody: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual

body” (1 Cor. 15:44). Some try to twist Paul’s words soas to make him say that Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t bodi-ly, but “only spiritual”! As if Christ’s body were still inthe tomb!

The obvious mistake in this has to do with the mean-ing of the Greek term that is translated “spiritual.” It

doesn’t mean “non-physical.” It means “filled with theHoly Spirit” or “empowered with the Holy Spirit.” This isclear from 1 Cor. 2:15, where Paul uses the same term todescribe Christians as “spiritual” people. The apostle isnot saying that Christians don’t have bodies; he is sayingthat they are under the direction of the Spirit of God.Similarly, Christ’s resurrection took place (as will ours!)in the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe that His wasa bodily resurrection.

We also believe that His was a bodily resurrection.Jesus of Nazareth was not brought back to the mannerof life that He had known before His death. This hadhappened for the son of the widow at Nain (Luke 7),Lazarus (John 11) and others. They were all revived bythe miraculous power of God. But they came back to thesame mortal existence that they had before, and then atsome later time they died again.

Not so on the first Easter! We believe that Jesus wasbodily resurrected. The Son of God had voluntarily emp-tied Himself of the full exercise of His powers and privi-leges. We often speak of this as Christ’s condition ofhumility or “humiliation.” He came to be our savior inour place, and He was subject to death. Jesus was “kill-able,” mortal.

But on the first Easter He was bodily resurrected ,that is, He was set free from death and all of its effects.Paul states this directly in Rom. 6:9: “We know thatChrist, being raised from the dead, no longer dies. Deathno longer lords it over him.”

Here is one more thing to believe about that firstEaster. Bodily resurrection was definitely a part of the

THE LUTHERAN WITNESS

The first Easter and the bodily resurrectionof Christ is full of meaning for our future.

faith of Old Testamentbelievers. But it wassupposed to happen on the Last Day (Dan.12:1–3; Job 19:25– 27).True resurrectionmeans that death hasbeen undone; theeffects of Adam’s sinshave been completelyreversed. God promisedto do that on the LastDay. But it already hashappened on the firstEaster; Jesus our Lordexperienced bodily

resurrection. The next question is,

“What does that mean?”We often say that

Easter proves or vali-

dates who Jesusclaimed to be and whatHe claimed to do. Thisis surely correct! Easteris “the sign of Jonah”that Jesus promised tothose who were ques-tioning His authorityand His ministry (Matt.12:38–40). Easterproves that God the Father is pleased with the sacrificeof His Son for us.

But it is this all? Is the first Easter merely an under-scoring of Good Friday? What else does it mean that thisMan, the Son of God, our Representative and Substitute,rose in a bodily resurrection?

Think first about the meaning of death. Why do peo-ple die today? There is onlyone ultimate reason; peopledie because they are sinners.Before they fell into sin, Adamand Eve were immortal. Deathonly entered in on the day thatthey ate the fruit from theforbidden tree. Every time youread an obituary, every timeyou attend a funeral, there isonly one thing that you know for certain about thatperson: he or she was a sinner. That’s why he or shedied.

Now, hold on to your hats. Jesus died! Why? He died,not because He was a sinner but because He came to bein our place, to take our place, to receive the punish-

ment from God that wedeserved and so to saveus. That means that Healso had to die. He diedin our place.

But if Jesus came tobe our substitute and tosave us from all theeffects of sin, then thatalso means that He hadto rise in a bodily resur-rection. Victory over sinand all of its effectsmust also mean victoryover death—the undoing of death. SinceJesus was our substi-tute, He had to rise in a bodily resurrection.For through Him, Godplanned to undo sin andall of its effects —eventhe mortality and deathof our bodies.

So, Easter means thatin Jesus, God has nowovercome even thedeath of our bodies. Hehas a plan and a certainhope for us and for allthe creation. This cre-

ation is the only one we’ve ever known, and, in so manyways, it is a wondrous, beautiful creation. But the apos-tle Paul reminds us that this creation is still subject tofutility, still groaning like a woman in labor, still waitingfor God’s final redemption and salvation to appear onthe Last Day (Romans 8). God has a plan to restore thecreation and make it again a place upon which He can

look down and say, “It is verygood.”

Easter means that we have apart in that plan for creation—all of us—bodies and souls. 1 Peter 1:3–5 says, “Blessed bethe God and Father of our LordJesus Christ! According to hisgreat mercy he has caused us tobe born again to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled andunfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s powerare being guarded through faith for a salvation ready tobe revealed in the last time” (English Standard Version).

Notice the three phrases that I have placed in italics.

Superstock APRIL 2004

Christ’s resurrection took place(as will ours!) in the power

of the Holy Spirit. We believe that His was a bodily resurrection.

Through Jesus’ resurrection, all Christians have a livinghope, an inheritance, a final salvation that will berevealed when Jesus comes again in glory. On the firstEaster, Jesus rose in a bodily resurrection. Because weare baptized into Him and believe His promise, we willreceive a bodily resurrection as well. His resurrectionand our resurrection cannotbe separated. We might evensay that they are actually thesame event. In fact, that iswhat Paul says in his famouschapter about our resurrec-tion, 1 Corinthians 15.

Among the many prob-lems in Corinth, there were apparently some peoplesaying, “There is no resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor.15:12). It is not the case that they were saying thatJesus hadn’t risen; in fact, Paul can mention Christ’sresurrection as part of the good news that he preached

and that they had received (verses 3–11). The problemwas that some in Corinth were saying that there wouldbe no future resurrection of the dead.

This creates a terrible and monstrous problem thatPaul must overthrow—because our resurrection andJesus’ resurrection are the same event, the same har-

vest.Watch how Paul

proceeds after men-tioning in verse 12 thefalse teaching held bysome. He says in thenext verse, “But ifthere is no resurrec-

tion of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.” Ponder that sentence for a moment. Why would that

be true? Couldn’t it be true that Jesus was raised, butthat we will not? No! Paul’s answer comes clear in verse20 when he writes, “But in fact Christ has been raisedfrom the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallenasleep.”

The concept of “firstfruits” comes from the OldTestament and refers to the very first part of a harvestthat is offered in thanksgiving to God. But there is onlyone harvest. And there is only one resurrection. Jesus’resurrection is the firstfruits of ours. His completevictory over death and sin is our promised completevictory over death and sin.

Because we believers in Christ Jesus are connectedto Him by our Baptism, we will come forth as the fulland final harvest of which Jesus Himself is the first por-tion. Just as Christ died for us and in our place, He alsorose for us and in our place, to guarantee that great andfinal victory for us on the Day when He comes again inglory. That is what Easter means, most gloriously andmost especially!

Easter for our FuneralsIf we take seriously the meaning of the first Easter,

then there should be no better place to hear this resur-rection good news than at a Christian’s funeral—right?Let me speak of personal experiences.

In the course of my 12 years in St. Louis, I haveattended a number of funerals for “regular” Christiansand for “more well-known” synodical leaders. Yet Irarely have heard a single mention of this good news ofbodily resurrection in the funeral sermons. I can assureyou that this is the case because I listen specifically forit.

Gratefully, the liturgy always offers this comfort offull new life on the last day. But why, when a Christianhas died and the body is right there in the middle of thecongregation, do I hear only that the soul of the believerhas gone to be with Christ?

FotosearchTHE LUTHERAN WITNESS

At funerals, let us comfort one another in the face of death with words of Easter

hope and the promise of bodily resurrection.

APRIL 2004

Please do not misunderstand me.When a Christian dies, his soul doesgo to be “away from the body and athome with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).Scripture is very clear about that.There is true comfort in this forthose who mourn the death of aChristian loved one.

But the death of a loved one isstill his death. Death can not sepa-rate us from the love of God whichis ours in Christ. But it is the lastenemy to be overcome (1 Cor.15:26). Our bodies matter to God;with them, we do good and we doevil. The creation matters to God;on the Last Day, through ChristJesus, God the Father will restoreand renew the creation.

A funeral brings us face to facewith God’s timing that we mustaccept by faith—the last enemy,whose sting has been taken away,has not yet been fully overcome!Could it be that the reason why onemight not hear Easter and Last DayGood News at a funeral is becausethat Easter and Last Day GoodNews has not been at center stagethe rest of the time?

Dr. Francis Pieper wrote thesewords in his Christian Dogmatics

when he discussed the condition ofthe soul between death and thereturn of Christ: “Holy Writ reveals

but little of the state of the soulbetween death and the resurrection.In speaking of the last things, itdirects our gaze primarily toJudgment Day and the events clus-tering around it” (emphasis added).Dr. Pieper is right. When theChristians in Thessalonica weredistressed over the fact that some of their number had died before theLord’s return, Paul did not say tothem, “Don’t worry: their souls arein heaven with Christ.” No. Hewrote, “The dead in Christ will risefirst. … Therefore comfort oneanother with these words” (1 Thess.4:16, 18).

At funerals, let us comfort oneanother in the face of death withwords of Easter hope and the prom-ise of bodily resurrection.

Easter for Our FutureI teach a Bible class at my home

congregation. Last Easter season wedid a short study together on themeaning of Christ’s resurrectionfrom the dead. I tried to summa-rize much of what we were study-ing with this short, to the pointstatement: “Easter is your future!”

That’s just right, isn’t it? Christ,the firstfruits, is risen from thedead. In God’s timing and in Hisplan, the remainder of the harvest

will come forth from the earth—allwho have died in the Lord and eventhe last generation of those who areliving when Christ returns. Already,by faith in God’s great Good Fridayand Easter Gospel, we have begunour new life in Christ. We can honorGod with the choices we make withour bodies, as Paul wrote to theCorinthians: “The body is not meantfor sexual immorality, but for theLord, and the Lord for the body. AndGod raised the Lord and will alsoraise us up by his power. Do you notknow that your bodies are membersof Christ?” (1 Cor. 6:13b–15a).

Most important, we can rejoice inhope, in a certain hope that Easterreveals to us our future in the LordJesus Christ. And we can speak withjoy the familiar words of the NiceneCreed: “I acknowledge one baptismfor the remission of sins. And I look

for the resurrection of the dead, andthe life of the world to come.”Amen!

Dr. Jeffrey Gibbs isassociate professor of exegetical theologyat Concordia Seminary,St. Louis. Mo.

True resurrectionmeans that death

has been undone; theeffects of Adam’s sinshave been completelyreversed.

Photo © CPH /George Ibera

T he New York Times number-one bestseller in the “hard-back advice” category is

again an evangelical Christian book:Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven

Life.Many Lutherans are among those

eagerly reading the book. And manyLutheran congregations are amongthose in more than 60 church bodiesthat are engaged in a spiritual-growth campaign called “Forty Daysof Purpose” that requires readingthe book.

Many Christians are findingtheir devotionalreading of thebook to be veryhelpful for theirspiritual life andfor the health oftheir congrega-tion. Warren has afresh way ofaddressing familiarconcepts and chal-lenging people withsome new ideas,making the bookworthwhile reading.Yet the perceptiveLutheran reader will bewell aware that RickWarren is not aLutheran and that histheology clearly reflectsa Reformed or Baptist tradition.

This means that much of what hehas to say may be true, but only asfar as it goes. In other words, some

of what he writes is not consistentwith Scripture and some importantpoints that need to be made areneglected. What follows are somenecessary qualifiers that I hope willserve to make one’s reading of thebook more edifying.

1.Creation alone is not enough.

Because Warren is a Reformedpastor, the foundation for his theol-ogy is the sovereignty of God. Hepredicates our worship of God, ourservice of God, etc., upon the fact

that God has cre-ated us (FirstArticle of theCreed).

It is true thatGod has creat-ed us to praiseand glorifyHim. God hasindeedshaped us forserving Him.He has cre-ated us tobecomelike Christ.But noneof thiswill everhappen

simply because Goddesigned us for these purposes. Thereason is that we are also by naturesinful fallen creatures who are spiri-tually dead and unable to do whatGod designed us to do (see

Ephesians 2). The only way we cando anything pleasing to God is to berecreated by the Holy Spirit and tobe converted into new creations inChrist Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 5).

2. Faith in Christ is a work of

the Holy Spirit. ManyLutherans have come to expect thatpopular Christianity will often fail togive full credit to the Holy Spirit forone’s conversion and saving faith.Rick Warren joins many other popu-lar preachers in giving the impres-sion that people must make a deci-sion for Christ by the power of theirown free will.

Martin Luther, on the other hand,reminds us (as does St. Paul in 2Thess. 2:14), that we cannot by ourown reason or strength believe inJesus Christ or come to Him, butthe Holy Spirit has to call us by theGospel and enlighten us with Hisgifts. As Jesus knocks at the door ofour heart (cf. Rev. 3:20), we canopen the door to Him only after wehear His voice (see Rom. 10:17).Jesus would remind us, as He didHis disciples, that we did not choseHim but He chose us and appointedus to go and bear fruit (John 15:16).

3. Worship is not only sacrifi-

cial. Warren does well toexpand our definition of worshipbeyond the sanctuary into everyaspect of our lives. Yet he leaves outthe most important aspect of wor-ship—the sacramental. Before wecan respond to God with our praises

Here are some points worthkeeping in mind when reading Rick Warren’s

best-selling book.

by Paul R. Naumann

THE LUTHERAN WITNESS

A LOOK AT

THE PURPOSEDRIVEN LIFE

APRIL 2004

and give Him pleasure, we first need to give God the pleasureof coming to us with His grace and forgiveness.

God has eternal glory without us (cf., John 1:14), but He isfurther glorified by giving His Son Jesus Christ into death forour forgiveness, life and salvation. God dispenses these giftsto us only through the means of grace: Word and Sacrament.Worship is first and foremost gathering around Word andSacrament to receive God’s gifts, and only having receivedthese gifts can we then respond to God with our sacrifices ofpraise and thanksgiving, either in church or outside of it (seeJohn 12:23–33).

4. Baptism is more than a confession of faith. WhenRick Warren speaks of Baptism, he has some creative

ways of saying what Baptists usually say about it, namely,that it is an outward sign of an inward reality. In other words,Warren believes that Baptism is only a public declaration offaith on the part of someone who has already become abeliever (and for this reason, infant Baptism is excluded).

While Baptism does make a public statement to othersthat the one being baptized is entering into the Christiancommunity, it is much more than this. As already noted,Baptism is a means of grace. That is to say that Baptism isGod’s action and not ours. The Bible clearly states that inBaptism God gives us the gifts of forgiveness and the HolySpirit (Acts 2:38).

5. “Ministry” also has a narrow definition. What The

Purpose Driven Life has to say about ministry is excel-lent, but we should note that Warren speaks of it in its broadsense of “service,” not in its narrow sense of “pastoral min-istry” (i.e., the dispensing of Word and Sacraments).

The Bible uses the word “ministry” (diaconia) in both abroad and narrow sense (see 2 Corinthians 4–5 for the nar-row sense). Because the Lutheran Confessions have muchmore to say about “ministry” in the narrow sense—that is,giving the Gospel and Sacraments to people—than in thebroad sense, some Lutherans prefer to speak of “ministry” asprimarily the activity of ordained clergy and others who par-ticipate in the pastoral office. Be aware that when Warrenencourages all Christians to do “ministry,” he meansChristian “service” to people in need—the job of the “royalpriesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), which includes not only clergy, butthe whole Church.

These are some things that a Lutheran might bear in mindwhen reading The Purpose Driven Life. Even so, we can begrateful for the book’s exhortation about our sanctificationand our properresponse to whatGod has so freelyand wonderfullydone for us in ChristJesus.

Dr. Paul R. Naumann is senior pastor of St. Michael LutheranChurch, Portage, Mich.

AN ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTION

In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren seesGod’s smile as the result of the Christian’s obe-

dience. In fact, God’s smile in Christ is the reason

Christians seek to do God’s will in the first place.God’s grace and favor are the cause—not the

goal—of the Christian life.Allow me to make a suggestion. Rather than try

to work around the problems presented byWarren’s book, take instead another look at theSmall Catechism as a handbook for the Christianlife. There we find resources in our own traditionfor understanding God’s purposes for us.

The Lutheran teaching of the doctrine of voca-tion is embodied in the Small Catechism and itgives a completely different focus to the Christianlife than does The Purpose Driven Life.

Simply put, the Small Catechism sees theChristian life as having a dual focus. It is the lifethat is lived in faith toward Christ and love for ourneighbor.

Faith, not love, is the foundation for theChristian life. The First Commandment is fulfilledby faith alone. But, as Martin Luther said, faith isnever alone. Faith bears fruit in love that seeks toaid and assist our neighbor in his or her need.

We “thank, praise, serve and obey” God not inorder to gain His approval but because He createdus “without any merit or worthiness of mine.”

Luther’s explanation of the First Article of theCreed leads to the “Daily Prayers” and “Table ofDuties” that follow “the six chief parts” in the littleblue Catechism widely used among confirmationstudents. God is thanked and praised in theprayers that punctuate the daily life (morning,evening, mealtime), and He is served and obeyedas Christians live out their various callings in con-gregation, family and community (table of duties).

Perhaps the popularity of The Purpose Driven

Life and its related programs in our churches is asignal that we have forgotten the “extraordinaryordinariness” of the Lutheran understanding of life(to borrow a phrase from historian Mark Noll) thatlies behind the Lutheran doctrine of vocation.

Permit me to suggest two books that are finealternatives to The Purpose Driven Life: God at

Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life byGene Edward Veith (Crossway Books) and The

Christian’s Calling in the World by Marc Kolden(Centered Life Series –Luther Seminary).

— Rev. John T. Pless

Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions

Director of Field Education

Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.

For more news...For more news—

and more timely news—visit http://reporter.

lcms.org on the Web.That’s the Web site forReporter, the officialnewspaper of TheLutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

NATIONAL News

week where ticket salesof $2,500 (for about 500tickets) are guaranteed.

Clauss said the dead-line for booking themovie has been extendedfor as long as the guaran-tees are received or untilthe film is offered in DVDand VHS formats, “whichare unlikely to be avail-able before mid-to-late2004.”

For more information,contact Rhonda Englishat (800) 847-4836, Ext.85552; rhonda.english@

thrivent.com.

Tietjen dies; led seminary in controversy

Dr. John H. Tietjen,president of ConcordiaSeminary, St. Louis,through the early 1970sand prominent in thedoctrinal controversy inthe Synod at that time,died Feb. 15 at his homein Fort Worth, Texas, of complications fromcancer.

Tietjen, 75, was pastoremeritus of TrinityLutheran Church, anEvangelical Lutheran

Church in America congre-gation in Fort Worth,where his funeral was heldFeb. 19.

He was the seminary’spresident from 1969 to1974, when its board ofcontrol suspended him onwhat was reported as“charges of malfeasance inperforming the duties ofhis office and advocacy offalse doctrine.”

That led to a “walkout”involving most seminarystudents and faculty onFeb. 19, 1974, and theirforming ConcordiaSeminary in Exile (ChristSeminary-Seminex).

Tietjen was a 1953 graduate of ConcordiaSeminary, St. Louis.

‘Gus’ Bernthaldies; former district head

Dr. August “Gus”Bernthal, a former Florida-Georgia District presidentand Synod vice president,died Jan. 27 at his home inWinter Haven, Fla., of com-plications from Alzheimer’sdisease.

The funeral service wasFeb. 2 at Grace Lutheran

Church, Winter Haven,where Bernthal waspastor from 1950 to 2000.

Bernthal, 81, waspresident of the LCMSFlorida-Georgia Districtfrom 1963 to 1974, servedas the Synod’s fifth vicepresident from 1974 to1977, and was a memberof the LutheranImmigration and RefugeeService Board ofDirectors for more than25 years.

While he was its pas-tor, Grace Lutheran’smembership grew fromfewer than 20 membersto more than 2,800. Healso guided the congrega-tion in co-sponsoringresettlement of morethan 350 immigrants and refugees.

Gathering will include youthfrom 23 lands

Young people and theiradult leaders from 23Missouri Synod partnerchurches around theworld are expected toattend the 2004 NationalLCMS Youth GatheringJuly 24–28 in Orlando.

Gretchen Jameson,communications managerfor the Gathering and itssponsor, LCMS YouthMinistry, said that is onemore than the number ofpartner churches andcountries represented atthe 2001 Gathering.

New interest can reissue ‘Luther’

With the movie“Luther” reissued foralmost 100 locations asthis issue of The Lutheran

Witness went to press, it will continue “in the-aters as long as there is a demand,” said Dennis A. Clauss.

Clauss, executive pro-ducer of “Luther,” said theresponse has been “verypositive” to the offer toreissue the movie for one

available at the P2K Website, www.pentecost

2000.com.Dr. Allan Buckman,

coordinator of the “learn-ings” project, says it isintended to take thoseinsights to a wider audi-ence.

The P2K goal of start-ing 1,000 cross-culturalministries nationwide is

expected to be reached in time for a celebrationbefore the Synod’s nation-al convention in July, saidP2K Director MarieBiesenthal.

At that time the first oftwo P2K books, One

People— Many Faces,will be released to give anoverview of the ministriesand those involved in

LCMS World Mission isputting into book formanswers to the question,“What have we learnedfrom ‘Pentecost 2000’?”“P2K” is the effort thathas identified more than900 new cross-culturalministries throughout theSynod.

Information aboutthose ministries is already

the ministries.The second book,

produced under theauspices of the LutheranSociety for Missiology, isdesigned to carry moredetailed information forstarting cross-culturalministries, and likelywon’t be available untilthe end of the year,according to Buckman.

Missions to share ‘learnings’ from ‘Pentecost 2000’

THE LUTHERAN WITNESS

NATIONAL News

The Commission onTheology and ChurchRelations (CTCR) is rec-ommending that this sum-mer’s Synod conventiondeclare the Synod to be inaltar and pulpit fellowshipwith the EvangelicalLutheran Church of Kenya(ELCK).

The resolution of sup-port for fellowship withthe East African churchbody was adopted unani-mously by the commis-sion at its Feb. 16–18meeting in St. Louis.

A report from discus-sions between the twochurch bodies says thatdoctrinal agreement existsbetween them.

The ELCK has some70,000 members in 440congregations, which areserved by 110 pastors and

Walter Obare, “we expectthat together we willstrengthen and stand onewith the other on the faithwe are called to witnessto within our respectivechurch bodies and hencealso within worldChristendom.”

185 trained evangelistsunder the pastors’ super-vision.

“The ELCK and theLCMS, while vastly dif-ferent from one another,are remarkably alike inour understanding of thelife-transforming activity

of the Triune God throughWord and Sacrament,”Synod President GeraldKieschnick said after rep-resentatives of the twochurches met Jan. 27–28for doctrinal discussions.

“By God’s grace,” saidELCK Presiding Bishop

CTCR recommends fellowship with Kenyan Lutherans

Firefighters spray the surrounding area and battle flamesfrom a Feb. 9 fire that gutted the building of St. JohnLutheran Church, Sycamore, Ill.

Rev. Don Phelps diddouble duty during theFeb. 9 fire that gutted St.John Lutheran Church,Sycamore, Ill., as the con-gregation’s pastor and aschaplain for the firedepartment battling theflames there.

“It was difficult” minis-tering to firefighters andmembers, Phelps said.

Local media reportedthat the fire drew morethan 100 onlookers—mostly members of St.John—and fire-fightingunits from 11 communi-ties after it began about 5 p.m.

Phelps said that every-thing inside the building is

thought to be lost exceptfor the church records,kept safe in metal filecabinets.

Neither the cause of

Pastor does double duty as fire guts Illinois church

force chairman, said thatthe task force is makingfive recommendations:

• Increase the numberof synodically certifiedteachers by five percentper year for the nextdecade.

• Change Synod bylaws“to ease restrictions forenrollment in the Synod’steacher-colloquy program,”which leads to certifica-tion.

The 20-member NextGeneration Task Forcehas found that only one-third of the 18,000 teach-ers in the schools ofSynod congregations arecertified.

Kieschnick said thatone of the “chief ... chal-lenges is the lack of reli-gious education for manywho teach in the schoolsof our Synod.”

Dr. D. Ray Halm, task

Task force looks at teacher certification

Photo courtesy of Daily Chronicle, DeKalb, Ill.

• Offer professionalworkshops for uncertifiedteachers.

• Adjust the salaries ofcertified teachers andprovide financial supportfor those who are takingcourses that lead to certifi-cation.

• Urge congregationswith schools to recruitmore teachers who wouldenroll at one of the Synod’scolleges or universities.

the fire nor an estimate ofdamage costs was deter-mined by the time The

Lutheran Witness wentto press.

During a Feb. 15 serv-ice in the Sycamore HighSchool auditorium,Phelps assured membersthat they would rebuild.

“I wouldn’t be exag-gerating to say that every single church inSycamore, probably 15 inall, has offered to helpus,” Phelps said.

Members of St. John“were initially shocked,especially if theywatched the fire,” hesaid. “But now, they’repitching in to do whatthey can.”

Sycamore is locatedjust north of DeKalb andabout 60 miles west ofChicago.

APRIL 2004

THE LUTHERAN WITNESS Newmarket Films

LUTHERJEWS

by Uwe Siemon-Netto

What do Mel Gibson, JohannSebastian Bach and MartinLuther have in common?

They all have been accused of anti-Semitism—Gibson and Bachbecause of their passion film andoratorios, respectively, and Lutherbecause of what he said and wrotein his declining years.

During Lent this year, millionsaround the world have doubtlessconcluded from watching Gibson’smovie “The Passion of The Christ”that—contrary to assertions in slickglossy magazines—it can hardly beconstrued as an anti-Jewish diatribe,simply because it is based on theGospel narratives.

And even though occasionally thecharge pops up on the Internet thatBach, too, was a bigot, audiences willeasily discern who in Bach’s mindshould feel guilty about Christ’s suf-fering and death. In Paul Gerhardt’semotive words, which Bach used forthe key chorale in the Saint MatthewPassion:

’Tis I who should be smitten

My doom should here be written:

Bound hand and foot in hell.

The fetters and the scourging,

The floods around Thee surging,

’Tis I who have deserved them well.

“I”—all of us sinners—and notjust Jews are to blame. This clearlylets Bach off the hook.

But what about Luther, whose

theology inspired Bach so much?Was Luther indeed the progenitor ofGermany’s Nazi era and thus theauthor of the slaughter of 6 millionJews, as visitors of the NationalHolocaust Museum have been toldever since it opened its doors? Thisis what we have been led to believeby William L. Shirer, author of The

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,Thomas Mann and many others.

Why, a reader asked, does lastyear’s film “Luther” not even men-tion this troubling question that hasprompted Lutheran churchesaround the world to distance them-selves from their founder’s sayingson this topic? (Actually, ferventLutherans such as Justus Jonas haddone so already in his lifetime.)

As far as the film is concerned,the answer is easy. The movie onlycovers a period in Luther’s life whenhe was among the most outspokenpro-Jewish theologians in the histo-ry of the Christian church. In his1520 exegesis of Ps. 14:7 he wrote,“Damnable is the rage of someChristians (if indeed one can callthem Christians) who believe theyare doing God a favor by persecut-ing Jews in the most hateful manner,entertain wicked thoughts aboutthem, and mock their misfortunewith pride and contempt.”

These words were all the more

ANDTHE

In “The Passion of The Christ,” the depictionof the high priest Caiaphas and hisfollowers taking delight at Christ's sufferinghas brought trepidation and anger fromsome American Jewish leaders.

Public debate over “The Passion ofThe Christ” has again raised the issueof how Christians have treated Jewsover the last 2,000 years—and of

Martin Luther’s role in that history.

Photos by SuperStock APRIL 2004

remarkable as they followed a fierce tug-of-war between Johannes Pfefferkorn, a con-vert from Judaism who had turned againsthis own people, and humanist philosopherJohannes Reuchlin, who defended them.Having offered his services to the Dominicanorder in Cologne, Pfefferkorn schemed tohave 2,000 Jewish books confiscated in theRhineland by these monks, while Reuchlinsaw to it that the books were not destroyedbut restored to the Jewish community.

Josel von Rosheim, then Judaism’s chiefspokesman, with whom Luther conductedan extensive correspondence, wrote: “Ourenemies, and the oppressors from amongour own people [i.e., Pfefferkorn], arose toabolish the written Torah. Then God per-formed a double miracle, for the Torah wasrestored to its former glory by a sage amongthe nations [Reuchlin].”

Luther supported Reuchlin. He wishedhim Godspeed in opposition to Pfefferkorn’sattempt to have all Jewish books destroyed.This was the Luther who, in 1523, remindedhis fellow Christians “That Jesus Christ wasBorn a Jew,” as the title of one of his mostfamous treatises reads. “If the apostles, whowere also Jews, had dealt with us Gentiles aswe Gentiles deal with the Jews, there wouldnever have been a Christian among them,”Luther wrote. “Since they dealt with usChristians in such brotherly fashion, we inturn ought to treat the Jews in a brotherly manner inorder that we might convert some of them. … Weshould remember that we are but Gentiles, while Jewsare in the lineage of Christ.”

He went on, “If I had been a Jew and had seen suchdolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christianfaith, I would sooner have become a hog than aChristian.”

Ah, if only Luther had let the matter rest there. Alas,we can’t get away from the bitter truth that toward theend of his life—well after the adoption of the AugsburgConfession in 1530, which is where the film “Luther”ends—the reformer changed his tune radically. In 1543,three years before his death, he penned his venomousbook, Of the Jews and Their Lies, whose contentsLutherans ignored for centuries but came to haunt themin the aftermath of World War II and to this very day.

He demanded, much like Pfefferkorn, that all syna-gogues be destroyed “with fire and sulfur”; that theJews’ private homes be razed; that all their liturgicalbooks and Bibles be confiscated; that Jews not be per-mitted to attend divine service and any religious instruc-

tion by their rabbis, lest they risk execution; that theymust not utter God’s name; that they are forbidden towork as merchants and move freely in public; thatusury be outlawed and Jews be deprived of money andvaluables; that young Jews, male or female, be com-pelled to do hard labor.

So he was an anti-Semite after all, wasn’t he? He wasnot. Anti-Semites are racists, and racists appeared onthe scene much later in history—after theEnlightenment and the French Revolution. Luther didnot think of Jews in ethnic terms; his bias was religious.Just before his death he admonished the princes to treatconverts from Judaism as brethren.

Earlier, he had ridiculed the Catholic prohibitionagainst a Christian marrying a Jew. He made clear thathe was not bothered with what later would be called“miscegenation” (interbreeding of persons of differentracial backgrounds) in the American South: “As I amallowed to eat, drink, sleep, go out, ride, speak and dobusiness with a heathen, Jew, Turk or heretic, so I mayalso marry and remain in that state, and do not worryabout the stupid laws that forbid such things.”

Because of his passion oratorios, Johann Sebastian Bach, himself a Lutheran,has occasionally been accused of anti-Semitism. In fact, his oratorios makeclear whom he blames for Christ’s death: all sinners, himself included.

Painting by Lucas Cranach the ElderTHE LUTHERAN WITNESS

L ate in life, Luther became quite frustrated in hishope that large numbers of Jews would be con-verted by an honest presentation of the Gospel.

That frustration—even bitterness—shows in some ofhis writings.

That’s not to say that we should excuse Luther’sinvective. And the Missouri Synod hasn’t excused it.The 1983 Synod convention resolved that we “deploreand disassociate ourselves from Luther’s negative state-ments about the Jewish people.”

Rather, we are encouraged to adopt the attitudetoward Jewish people taken by Luther in his last sermon:“We want to treatthem withChristian loveand to pray forthem, so thatthey mightbecome convert-ed and wouldreceive the Lord.”

The conven-tion noted that “it is widely butfalsely assumedthat Luther’spersonal writingsand opinions havesome officialstatus among us (thus, sometimes implying the responsibility of contemporary Lutheranism for those statements . . .).” At the same time, it said, theScriptural mandate to proclaim the Gospel “to all peo-ple—that is, to Jews also, no more and no less than toothers (Matt. 28:18–20) . . . is sometimes confusedwith anti-Semitism.”

The convention resolved that:

�“we condemn any and all discrimination againstothers on account of race or religion or any coer-cion on that account and pledge ourselves to workand witness against such sins”;

�“while, on the one hand, we are deeply indebted toLuther for his rediscovery and enunciation of theGospel, on the other hand, we deplore and disasso-ciate ourselves from Luther’s negative statementsabout the Jewish people, and, by the same token,we deplore the use today of such sentiments byLuther to incite anti-Christian and/or anti-Lutheransentiment”;

�“we reaffirm that the bases of our doctrine are theScriptures and the Lutheran Confessions and notLuther, as such”;

�“in our teaching and preaching we take care not toconfuse the religion of the Old Testament . . . withthe subsequent Judaism, nor misleadingly speakabout “Jews” in the Old Testament (“Israelites” or“Hebrews” being much more accurate terms), lestwe obscure the basic claim of the New Testamentand of the Gospel to being in substantial continuitywith the Old Testament and that the fulfillment ofthe ancient promises came in Jesus Christ”;

�“we avoid the recurring pitfall of recrimination (asillustrated by the remarks of Luther and many ofthe early church fathers) against those who do notrespond positively to our evangelistic efforts”; and

�“in that light, we personally and individually adoptLuther’s final attitude toward the Jewish people, asevidenced in his last sermon: ‘We want to treatthem with Christian love and to pray for them, sothat they might become converted and wouldreceive the Lord.’”

THE SYNOD’S RESPONSEThe Lutheran Witness, in the “Q&A” column for October 1994, addressed

the matter of “Luther and the Jews.” Here’s what the column said. — Ed.

W e are encouraged to adopt the attitude toward Jewishpeople taken by Luther in his last sermon:“We want

to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them, so thatthey might become converted and would receive the Lord.”

All this does not allay his harshwords against the Jews, though.What made him turn against the verypeople to whom Jesus belonged?Historians attribute this primarily totwo factors: First, Luther was, at theend of his life, immensely frustratedbecause the Jews would not acceptthe Gospel even after he had cleanedit up; second, he was very ill, in per-manent pain and generally disen-chanted.

Consider, too, that Luther lived300 years before Britain’s QueenVictoria, the mother of political cor-rectness. In his day and beyond,people did not mince words. Readthe foul language his contemporariesand their successors used from thepulpit anywhere—even in PuritanNew England; they would make usprim post-Victorians blush.

In fact, Luther reserved some ofhis choice invectives for his ownpeople. He called Germans “brutal,furious savages,” compared themwith monkeys aping everybody else.Germans, he said, were gluttons andboozers who should consider theirfrequent bouts of fever a medicinepreventing them from drinking andeating themselves to death. He vili-fied Germans just as much as theJews for rejecting the Gospel, pre-

dicting that God would punish them,too. “Deaf, blind and obdurate ofheart,” these shameful Germandespisers of the Gospel might aswell give up all hope.

Of course, it was the Jews, notthe Germans, who suffered the kindof fate Luther predicted for them—and worse. But does this make himthe Nazis’ progenitor, as his detrac-tors assert? Clearly not. Most ofLuther’s anti-Jewish diatribes wereforgotten until anti-Semites dugthem up in the 20th century.

To suggest that Lutheran theologyturned Germans into Nazis is a falsecharge that simply cannot be sub-stantiated by the facts. Nazism didnot spring up in solidly Lutherancountries—such as Norway orDenmark— where under Germanoccupation Christians, including theking, pinned the Star of David ontheir own chests, out of solidaritywith the Jews, and explicitlyappealed to Luther in their resist-ance against Hitler.

Nazism was born in Germany, adenominationally mixed country.Its founders were mainly lapsedCatholics (not that I wish to blameCatholicism for this gruesomeideology cooked up by godlessminds). And three-fourths of all

concentration camp commandantswere Austrians—which means thatthey were raised as Catholics—according to Nazi-hunter SimonWiesenthal.

Tragically, the ramblings of thesick father of the Reformation havecaused many Protestants today todismiss his greatest legacy—histheological realism. Of course wemust reject what Luther said aboutthe Jews, but this still leaves us withthe liberating message of who weare as Christians: simul iustus et

peccator, at the same time justified(by Christ) and sinners.

Gordon Rupp, a British Methodisttheologian, had it right when hewrote about Luther: “I confess I amashamed as I am ashamed of someletters of St. Jerome [and] someparagraphs in Sir Thomas More …,and must say that their authors hadnot so learned Christ, and that,thank God, this is not the major partof what they had to say.”

Photo by Roger Lemoyne /Getty Images APRIL 2004

Dr. Uwe Siemon-Netto is religion editor forUnited Press Internationaland a member of MountOlivet Lutheran Church,Washington, D.C.

A Jewish man visits the Historical Museum, in Jerusalem, operated by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’Remembrance Authority. Some historians have blamed Martin Luther for the anti-Semitism of the Nazis. Author Uwe Siemon-Netto first demonstrated in his book The Fabricated Luther (CPH, 1995) that this charge is not substantiated by the facts.

Courtesy of Concordia Publishing House

by Loraine M. Rathman

Will those who do notbelieve Jesus is the Christ,the Son of the only God,

share eternity with those who do?Reading an article recently that

seemed to imply the answer is “Yes,”my mind flashed back to my friend-ship with “Charlie” some 36 yearsago. Charlie is a Jew, both by faithand culture. Due to our friendship—one of mutual respect and trust—Isearched the Scriptures for anyindication that Charlie might receive“the grace necessary to salvation”even though he rejected JesusChrist as his Savior. While nohuman can grasp God’s infinitewisdom, I do not believe God wouldleave such an important matterhidden from our clear understand-ing. Eternal lives are at stake.

Read the following passages andwrite out what they say on this mat-ter.

Matt. 11:27 ________________________________________________

John 14:6–7 ________________________________________________

Acts 4:12 __________________________________________________

1 Cor. 8:4–6 ________________________________________________

2 Tim. 3:15 ________________________________________________

1 John 2:22–23 ____________________________________________

The Old Testament writers wit-ness to the God of Israel whoyearned for Israel’s faithfulness toHim alone. Beginning with Genesis,Scripture speaks of one true God.Read Ex. 20:3; Deut. 4:35, 39 andJoshua 24:14–27.

How do the inspired writers ofScripture connect the one true Godrevealed in the Old Testament withJesus? Look again at the New

SearchingSCRIPTURETestament readings above,then write your answer._________________________

_________________________

_________________________

According to Col. 1:15–17,who created all things, heav-en and earth, visible andinvisible? _________________________

How does God refer to Himself inGen. 1:26? ________________________________

Why is the pronoun plural? ________________________________

________________________________

John 1:1 and 14 state: “In the be-ginning was the Word, and the Wordwas with God, and the Word wasGod. He was with God in the begin-ning … and the Word became fleshand made His dwelling among us.”

What is the significance of Jesus’statement to the Pharisees in John8:58, “I tell you the truth, beforeAbraham was born, I am!”? (See Ex.3:13–14.)________________________________

________________________________

In John 10:30, Jesus declares, “Iand the Father are one.” Just prior toHis arrest in John 17:1–5, Jesusprays, “And now, Father, glorify mein your presence with the glory I hadwith you before the world began.”

Now read Luke 10:16. If someonerejects Jesus as the Christ, who elseis rejected?________________________________

________________________________

In John 8:42–47, Jesus informs thePharisees who claim the God ofAbraham as their God and Father:“If God were your Father, you wouldlove me, for I came from God. …You belong to your father, the devil.… The God is infinitely wise and fullof compassion. Even in His dyingmoments on the cross, Jesus asksHis Father to forgive His execution-

Dr. Loraine M.Rathman is a deaconess candidateand a member ofFaith LutheranChurch, EastWenatchee, Wash.

CHRIST ALONE?

ers, “for they know not what theydo.” Throughout Scripture, God’schosen leaders prayed for His peo-ple when He wanted to punish themfor their unfaithfulness, and Godresponded in mercy.

Read 1 Tim. 2:3–6. How is God’scompassion shown here?_______________________________

_______________________________

According to this passage, whatway has God in His compassionprovided for the salvation of allpeople?_______________________________

_______________________________

Scripture makes clear that it is amistaken “hope” to think that apartfrom Christ we will share eternitywith God. We need only look atChrist “stricken, smitten and afflict-ed,” dying on the cross and forsak-en by His Father to view rightlysin’s immeasurable cost. We allneed His saving grace.

By sharing with others, includingthe Charlies in our lives, the GoodNews that God has provided theWay, in Christ, to eternal life, wecan be part of His compassionateplan of salvation for His world.

THE LUTHERAN WITNESS

(83) FEBRUARY 2003 17

Rev. Random Name ispastor of Holy CrossLutheran Church,Anytown, USA

from thePRESIDENT

(1 Corinthians 15, selected verses).Death is a very real part of life.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says itsuccinctly: “There is a time foreverything, and a season for everyactivity under heaven: a time to beborn and a time to die. …” (Eccl.3:1–2).

From personal experience, weare aware of the reality of death.Yet, for most of us, the very thoughtof the undeniable eventuality of itsknocking at the door of our livesdrives us directly into deep denial,the natural feeling that while deathwill surely pay its visit to everyoneelse, somehow it will pass over our

own personal portal.What makes the

Resurrection so power-ful is that it rewrites thescript, it defies naturalprocesses, it accom-plishes the physicallyimpossible!

Resurrection sepa-rates Christianity fromevery other religion ofthe world!

All other religions focus on aperson, a leader, a martyr. But noother such figure did what Jesus ofNazareth did three days after Hisdeath on a cross, so vividly por-trayed in “The Passion of theChrist.” Jesus stands alone as theOne who died and later lived to tellabout it!

What’s more, His death and res-urrection assure us of our ownresurrection and life eternal withHim. Jesus said to Martha, the sis-ter of Lazarus, who Jesus raisedback to life three days after Hisdeath, “I am the resurrection andthe life. He who believes in me willlive, even though he dies; and who-ever lives and believes in me will

With the exception of threesisters and August-borngranddaughter Kayla, the

birthdays of the ladies in my life arein April. That includes wife Terry,daughter Angie, mother Elda andmother-in-law Dorothy. Needless tosay, April birthday dinners are alarge part of our family tradition!

April 15 is income-tax day, areminder of both the bane andblessing of U.S. citizenship. We areprivileged to pay a price for living in a country whose freedoms andopportunities are beyond the wildestimagination of most of the world’sinhabitants.

April is also the month in whichEaster Sunday most often occurs.This year the date is April 11. Nextyear it will be March 27.

Regardless of its date, the cele-bration of the Resurrection of ourLord is a very important festival inthe Christian church. The apostlePaul says it all: “If there is no resur-rection of the dead, then not evenChrist has been raised. And if Christhas not been raised, our preachingis useless and so is your faith. …For if the dead are not raised, thenChrist has not been raised either.And if Christ has not been raised,your faith is futile; you are still inyour sins. … But Christ has indeedbeen raised from the dead. …”

APRIL … A BLESSED MONTH!

never die” (John 11:25–26). May that assurance fill your

hearts and enrich your lives, mydear friends in Christ, as you liveeach day in the month of April, andevery month, week, day and year ofyour life, in the everlasting armsand the all-powerful embrace ofour gracious God. His love for theworld moved Him to sacrifice Hisonly Son to death on a cross, onlyto raise Him back to life again, invictory over death.

Again, St. Paul says it all: “Deathhas been swallowed up in victory.Where, O death, is your victory?Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and thepower of sin is the law. But thanksbe to God! He gives us the victorythrough our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor. 15:54–56).

A blessed month of April and ablessed Easter Festival of theResurrection to you all!

Jerry Kieschnick

Lives Transformed through Christ,in Time ... for Eternity!John 3:16 –17e-mail: president@lcms.org

Web page: www.lcms.org/president

What makes Resurrectionso powerful is that it

rewrites the script, it defies natural processes, it accomplishes the physically impossible!

THE LUTHERAN WITNESS