Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

congregation, not us listeners.” Certainly it has to do with
those who expound God’s Word publicly in a congregation,
those who instruct the Word…But it is a great and fatal
mistake to thing that it only has to do with them. No, it
likewise has much to do with those who are instructed in
the Word, all who want to be Christians. 72 (Emphasis mine)
Bleken goes on to say that there are three forces that are always trying to corrupt
the proper application of Sola Scriptura in the life of the church: rationalism, mysticism,
and tradition, all of which erode the authority of the clear, simple words of the divinely
inspired Scripture. 73 These three dangers are expounded upon further by later essayists. In
his 1943 convention essay Sola Scriptura, Justin Peterson expounds on the danger of the
misapplying reason in biblical hermeneutics,
Reason has its place and use in the study of God’s Word.
We need our reason to understand the meaning of the
words used in Scripture. We must observe the fixed laws of
language. And we must be able to think logically…Reason
makes a good servant of theology, but a very poor master.
When human reason would sit in judgment upon God’s
Word, it is setting itself up as God, placing itself above
God. Luther uses harsh language, but not too harsh, in
describing this brazen effrontery of human reason. He calls
reason “Satan’s paramour,” and the “enemy of faith.” 74
Similarly, S.C. Ylivsaker also warns against misapplying reason in biblical hermeneutics
in his 1938 conventions essay, “The Clearness of Scripture,” when he comments,
Reason is not there to make Scripture clear, as if it were
unclear. Reason is not there to play master, as if the Word
of God can be made a servant to the whims and fancies of
reasons. Reason is not there to test Scripture in order to
determine whether it speaks logically and reasonably or
not; or to strain the words of Scripture as a prospector
72 M.K. Bleken, “The Scriptural Principle” (paper presented to the 2 nd regular convention of the Norwegian
Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church, Albert Lea, MN, May 29-June 4, 1919.), 5.
Translation by Rev. Mark DeGarmeaux.
73 Bleken, The Scriptural Principle, 11.
74 Justin Petersen, “Sola Scriptura” Lutheran Synod Quarterly 42, nos. 2&3 (June/September 2002), 235.
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