Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — April 1913, Seite 158

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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158 ö Moderner Unglaube in der Generalsynode.

der Gesellschaft von der Sünde durch die göttliche Inkarnation. IEsus,
der ideale Mensch, habe Gott als den heiligen, liebenden Vater aller
Menschen enthüllt und den Wert jeder einzelnen Menschenseele offenbart.

Delk schreibt: „The time is not far past when the great ethnic
faiths were looked upon not only as false religions, but were con⸗
sidered inventions of the devil. Later they were accounted for as
the work of crafty, ambitious priests desirous of gain and of keeping
the people in subjection. Still more recently they were looked upon
as degenerate forms of earlier Biblical revelations. Now all these
conceptions have been left behind by inodern students of the ethnic
faiths. Religion is recognized as a universal instinct and possession.
Man is ineurably religious. God has not left any people without
some measure of spiritual power and truth. It is said he who knows
but one language knows none. If this is true in the study of a
language, it is doubly true in the study and appreéciation of Chris-
tianity. Christianity and the ethnie faiths possess in common a
characteristie which illumines and confirms the value of religion in
general and makes Christianity to shine forth as the world's supreme
faith.“ (571 f.) „My purpose is simply to urge upon you the value
of studying Christianity as related to the partial and imperfect faiths
of other religions.“ (572.) „The absence of any certainty that life
has à permanent value is the canker at the heart of heathenism.
Pessimism is the hidden note and unconscious attitude of all the
faiths untouched by the Christian spirit. They are deficient in a
sense of the higher world unity made possible by a belief in the
universal fatherhood of God. Consequently the truth of the brother-
hood of man is either veiled or becomes an impotent dream. Their
great desideratum is à power to redeem from sin — à redemption of
the individual and society accomplished by a divine incarnation.
Christianity is the only religion of redemption. Jesus Christ is the
unveiling of God, the holy, loving Father of all men. Jesus is the
ideal man. Jesus is the empowering personality which gives to our
holy faith its vital effectiveness. First through Jesus Christ has the
value of every individual soul become manifest.“ (573.) „Not with
a crushing ridicule, but through an intelligent sympathy must we
enter into a man's faith and seek to bring the fuller light of the
glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.“ (573.) Daß Harnack und die
Liberalen an diesen Gedanken Delks wenig aussetzen werden, daran
zweifeln wir nicht. Ebenso gewiß ist es aber auch, daß Delk das eigent⸗
liche Wesen des Christentums nicht erkannt hat und dabei auch der
Schrift ins Angesicht schlägt, welche die Heiden als 4so und ihre
Opfer als Dämonendienst bezeichnet und nur durch den Sohn zum
Vater kommen läßt. Wahre, wirkliche Religion ist das reale Kindes⸗
verhältnis des Menschen zu Gott, das einzig und allein entsteht durch
den Glauben an die im Evangelium dargebotene Vergebung der Sün⸗

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