Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — März 1911, Seite 129

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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Kirchlich⸗Zeitgeschichtliches. 129

well also to state that there are thrée or four. and possibly even five dif-
ferent kinds of 'gemeinschaftliche' churches. There is oneé of which we
know, and there may be others, in which the Lutherans oπwn one traet
and the Reformed another. the church being built upon the one and the
school house upon the other. both oνπned and cçontrolled jointly. We know
of a number of other instances reported as Cnion churches Whereé the one
denomination owus the property and the other worships in the church on
alternate Sundays, without anxy further rent than the payment of one-half
of current expenses and needed rebairs. In a large number of instançces
Lutherans and Reformed are joint oπners of the property which is man⸗
aged by trustées elécted by ethe two congregations. In other instances the
Lutheran church couneil and the Reformed consistory jointly form a board
kor the managing of the property. In many of these latter eases the pas-
tors are not even named among the officers. The so-called independent
churches, at least many of them, without saying anything about doctrine,
or the faith. hold joint elections for officers and pastors, manage their
affairs very much as if the two congregat ions were oné. But it is a matter
of sincere satisfaction to know that the number of churches of this latter
kind is not large. Someée even of those who have theoretically adopted this“
posit ion practically ignore it. Being a matter of many years' growth, it
will require timeé to outgrow it.“ Es liegt aber auf der Hand, daß es bei
solchen „gemeinschaftlichen“ Kirchen, auch in den besten Fällen, ohne allerlei
Unionisterei nicht abgehen wird. F. B.

Verbalinspiration. Der Lutheran (S. 34) teilt aus einer Rede, die
Phillips Brooks 1886 vor theologischen Studenten hielt, folgende treffliche
Stelle mit: The theory now s0o popular that the words of Sceripture are
not inspired has béeen invented to account for the supposed errors in the
Bible. If you come to anything that does not agrée with your ideas,
vou fall to this theory to the dishonor of God's Word. Now, if the words
may be disbelieved, yon see how réaddlily you can curry the iden à step
further and disbelieve sentences or passages or whole sections.. .. It is
a marvelous faet that those very passages that men are most apt to be⸗
lieve uninspired areé thée ones which have réceived the sanction of Jesus
Christ Himself in the New Testament. He makes reference to Lot's wife,
wWho was turned to a pillar of salt, to the destruction from heaven of
Sodom and Gomorrah, to Jonah and the whale. It is nonsense to say:
I believe Christ, but not tliose things.“ No man with a thimbleful of
brains will do it.“ Auch dem Lutheran gereicht dies Zeugnis zur Ehre.
Teilen aber auch D. Haas und D. Jacobs diese Stellung? F. B.

Die Lehrstellung der Generalsynode betreffend schreibt der Lut erun
Observer vom 13. Januar: The General Synod is as staunchly a Lutheran
body as any in America. Its theology is not that of Trent or Geneva,
but of Augsburg. It holds, rejoices in, and promulgates the distinctively
Lutheran ecnception of the Gospel. But in recognizing the points in which
it thus differs from other evangelical Protestant Churches, it does not
korget the truths which it holds in common with them. Neither is it
unmindful of the fact that these common truths are the great, essential,
saving ones of the Gospel. Wnere it differs krom other churches in the
theological interpretation and coordination of some of these truths, it
greatly prefers its oπn. But it pereeives that the particularistie teach-

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