Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — Januar 1915, Seite 41

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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Kirchlich⸗Zeitgeschichtliches. 41

weist darauf hin, daß die Lehre von der tiefen Verderbtheit der mensch⸗
lichen Natur durch diesen Krieg neue Bestätigung erhalte. Ein Abschnitt
lautet: This European war shows to me how firm, substantial, and true
the doctrines of the old theology arée; how false, absurd, and erroneous
rhe New Theology, the Modern Theology. and every other heretical theol-
ogy are; how it brings out in bold relief the old doctrine of Original Sin,
or, as sometimes called. The Entire Corruption of Human Nature, or Total
Depravity. as it is often termed. Our liberal and loose friends ought to
learn a lesson now, and some of them are getting it. I quote the follow-
ing from one of our weeklies: Another thing which ve think every
American of the fifty who got this first sigcht of war has come to feel
is that our religion has broken down in its psechology, that our gospel
has been addressed to a man who does not exist, that our sermons have
been preached to an imaginary man. We have been preaching to men.
as highly respectable. on the Wwhole, good, some of them saintly, while,
as a matter of fact. this has been only seeming. They have seemed this
because gréat temptations have not aroused them from their sleep. No
one wWwho came across Europe within the last month can ever hold this
easy faith again. Men are beasts, cruel, lustful, revengeful, ravening,
just as the (Giospel represents them.““ — Auch die „christlichen Nationen“
werden in vereinzelten Kundgebungen als das, was sie sind, nämlich als
Fiktion, erkannt. Im Curistian Worlrers Vayazine wird die Frage:
„But has not the Gospel béen preached among, and the Christ accepted
by, these warring nations? ganz richtig von einem Einsender beant⸗
wortet: „That Christ has béen préached among these peoples there ean
be no question; indeed, they are among the foremost missionary agen-
cies: they haveé sent missionaries to preach Christ to the heathen nations
of the world, — those very nations that to-day, because of Uthis war, laugh
and ridicule the Christianity hich they are asked to accept as a balm
for all their troubles, bhut which does not save these missionary nations
themselves from their oνn preésent awful trouble. Ves, Christ has been
preached to these nations, but they have not as nations accepted Him as
Savior and Ruler. Individuals among tliem have done so. But national
salvation is not the plan of God for this age. It is the divine purpose
for this dispensation that there should be gathered out from among
mankind those who, by à living faith. unite themselves, or are united
b His Spirit to Christ, as Savior and Lord.“ Falsch ist allerdings, wenn
in demfelben Artikel dann behauptet wird, wenn die Frage des Krieg⸗
führens von den einzelnen Christen entschieden werden könnte, so müßten
alle Kriege immediately and forever“ aufhören. Man will dem Ge⸗
danken, daß es auch gerechte Kriege gibt, und daß auch Christen dem
Kriegerstande angehören dürfen, nicht Raum geben. — In der Sunday.
School Nimés hat Prof. Griffith Thomas in einem Artikel über den Welt⸗
krieg folgende Korrektur an der Auffassung der Kirche als eines Institutes,
das in erster Linie der sozialen Reform zu dienen habe, angehracht: Per.
haps the supreme lesson to be learned at the present time is that the
kingdom of God is something vastly different from what is taugnt in
many quarters to-day. Some people seem to identify the divine kingdom
with the introduction of à new social order; others regard it as associated
with the coming of civilization and international peace. But neither of

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