Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — Februar 1905, Seite 89

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

Cited in Eckhardt's Reallexikon (1907) under: Chiliasmus 6 · Gnadenwahl · Wiſſenſchaft 10

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Kirchlich⸗Zeitgeschichtliches. 89

geweissagte Heil der Kirche findet. Das ist gewiß richtig, und jede Auslegung von
Offenb. Joh. 20, die die Herrlichkeit des Millenniums nicht geistlich deutet oder der
Kirche Jesu für diese Zeit den Charakter eines Kreuzreiches abspricht, widerspricht der
Analogie des Glaubens und verurtheilt sich selbst.“ — Daß die Missouri⸗Synode eine
Lehre, welche „der Kirche Jesu für diese Zeit den Charakter eines Kreuzreiches ab⸗
spricht“, weder führt, noch auch an irgend einem ihrer Glieder duldet, weiß das
iowasche „Kirchen⸗Blatt“ so gut wie wir. F. B.
Theologie, Wissenschaft und Lehrentwickelung. Der Lutheran Observer schreibt
vom 13. Januar: „Theology 2s a science. Its proud boast has always been
that it is the Queen of the Sciences.“ It is like other sciences in that it has
Its oπn peculiar fleld of reality, and like them, also, in its methods: it in-
vestigates, defines, systematizes, generalizes. It is like them, still further,
in this, that two elements are involved in its work, one invariable, the other
Vvariable. The physical sciences find their materials in nature, and the phe-
nomena with which they deal are natural facts, forces, laws. Theological
science finds its materials, for the most part, in the Old and New Testaments,
and the phenomena with which it deals are spiritual facts, forces, laws. The
invariable element in both cases is the phenomena investigated; the variable
element is their apprehension and interpretation. All science, in the final
analysis, is but a fallible and imperfeéct interpretation of the thought and
wWork of God. The natural sciences are an attempt to read God's thoughts
after Him as they are revealed in nature; theological science is the attempt
to read God's thoughts after Him as they are revealed in His Word. Reve-
lation and theology, therefore, are not synonymous. The one is primary,
the other secondary; one is divine and invariable, the other human and vari-
able. Theology is not something which man finds ready-made to his hand.“
What he finds ready-made' is Revelation, and out of this he makes his oWn
theology. In theology we are presented with the results of the action of fal-
lible, fnite minds working with infinite truths, values, implications, seeking
to detine and classify them and draw out their inferences. It is a human
statement of divine things. To assert, Theology cannot go beyond the Word
of God, and therefore it cannot grow,' is à rank instance of a non segustur.
It is equivalent to saying that because the revelation is complete, our under-
standing of it is also Complete. To argue that because theology cannot go
beyond the Word of God, therefore it is not capable of growth, is like ar-
guing that because astronomy cannot go beyond the flrmament for its mate-
rials, thereforeé the science of astronomy cannot grow. The firmament has
not changed, but our apprehension of it has. The planetary motions aré to-
day what they where when the Babylonians and Egyptians looked off into
space, but there has been a varying and advancing knowledge of their un-
varying phenomena. . EVen if astronomy cannot go beyond the firmament
kor its facts, it is yet capable of growth in the apprehension and interpreta-
tion of them. 80 while the revealed truth of God is constant, our under-
standing of it may be imperfect, liable to correction, improvement, enlarge-
ment. And such are the facts. The Word of God abideth forever, but our
knowledge of it grows; the Gospel is final and permanent, but our statement
of it, our theology, must be held open to development under the teaching of
the Divine Head of the Church, who, through the Spirit, Part by part to
man reveals The fullness of His face.“ In every sphere the earnest truth-
seeker comes to larger and fuller visions of things, for evermore it is true

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