Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

The Holy Scriptures were the precious heritage delivered into their hands without
taint or error by God’s grace. The Norwegian men realized that the main theological task
of the synod was to preach the revealed truth and defend against any deviations from that
revelation. But to simply accede to the nature and power of Scripture was not enough.
The synod’s motto “gegraptai” must not simply to be a slogan, but it must find living
expression among laity and clergy alike. The only way to avoid the pits of rationalism
and pietism was the faithful use of the Holy Scriptures. They must never run from or
compromise with error, but standing boldly on the Scriptures, defend the church from
false doctrine.
The Norwegian Hermeneutic sought not only to correctly understand and
formulate the doctrines revealed in the Scriptures, but also to apply them privately and
publicly, both in law and gospel, so the enemies of the church might be thwarted, the
lusts of the flesh killed, and the new man built up and renewed by the power of the Holy
Spirit. Herman Amberg Preus, in the midst of the Election Controversy, called upon a
divided Norwegian Synod to do just that,
O that we therefore, brethren, now that we come together
here, might together with our congregations make a sincere,
righteous repentance from the heart and in our deepest
distress cry to him: “Return, O God of hosts! Look down
from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; and the
vineyard which your right hand planted, and the Son,
whom you made strong for yourself - so will we not go
back from you; let us live, and we will call upon your
name. LORD God of hosts! Turn us, let your face shine, so
we are saved,” Psalm 80:12-20.
http://www.evangelicallutheransynod.org/publications/essays/hapreus-18a/5.html. (Accessed July 19,
2008).
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