Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

een mortally wounded. For whoever wants to build on
something of his own in addition to the promise of God,
does not have a true Christian faith which the Holy Ghost
works. Because it is the essence and nature of faith to
tolerate nothing alongside it in which man might trust
except the Word of God alone, or the divine promise. 44
Koren is even clearer about a proper hermeneutical approach in What the
Norwegian Synod Has Always Wanted. Koren marks two proper principles in scriptural
interpretation which Scripture itself gives: first, Holy Scripture is the only sure and
perfect rule of our faith and life; secondly, the great truth that Jesus Christ is the way to
salvation for all believing souls. 45 If there is any interpretation of Scripture that does
violence to either of these principles so clearly laid out in Scripture, the reader is allowing
something other that the Holy Spirit to guide him in his interpretation, be it reason or
tradition. Yet, Koren is quick to point out, these principles are not to be taken for granted
or handled with arrogance,
It is of no use to put them down on paper as a heading and
still act, write, and confess contrary to them. It is of no use
to pretend that these two fundamental principles are so well
known and so self-evident that we do not need to dwell on
them any further. The one who does this shows thereby that
he has not even begun to understand and appreciate them. 46
The two easiest ways in which these principles are abused show themselves is 1) a
misuse of God’s gift of reason; 2) supplanting the authority of the Scriptures with the
opinions of men (“father’s theology”). Misapplied reason, Koren remarks, is shown most
often when one takes issue with God and presumes to pass judgment on his Word. 47
44 U.V. Koren, “Can and Ought a Christian be Certain of His Salvation?” Lutheran Synod Quarterly 42,
nos. 2, 3 (June/September 2002), 163.
45 U.V. Koren, “What the Norwegians Synod Has Always Wanted.” Lutheran Synod Quarterly 32, no. 3
(September 1992), 13.
46 Koren, What the Norwegians Synod Has Always Wanted, 14.
47 Koren, What the Norwegian Synod Has Always Wanted, 21.
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