Issue 25-3: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Introduction

—by Wade Johnston

This issue was edited as the rhetoric of the United States presidential election primary season came into full swing. Election seasons are often contentious and seldom pretty, but this year’s is vying for a spot in a class all its own. Perhaps as much as any other election, Christians have a vested interest in this one. Much has changed — and more quickly, perhaps than at any other time in the lifetimes of those reading this.  The Bible has not changed, and the doctrine of the two kingdoms remains the same, but culturally and societally life for the American Christian, who holds dual citizenship in the temporal and spiritual kingdoms, has taken on a different sense and feel. It is a salutary thing, then, to review what Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions have to say in this regard and to wrestle with how we apply Lutheran principles to new circumstances.

Purchase the Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness Issue of LOGIA here. 

A particular strength of this issue is that it helps the reader to see how Christians have wrestled with and applied two-kingdom theology not only in our contemporary American context but also across time and space. Seeing the church wrestle with the two kingdoms in various circumstances and settings helps us identify our own personal, cultural, and contemporary blind spots. Moreover, the experience of fellow Christians in the past and across the globe provides lessons for our own setting.

This issue begins with a call from Gene Veith to remember that God, while hidden in the temporal realm, is nevertheless active in that realm — active especially in his Christians, who need not, indeed dare not, neglect their citizenship in this realm. Through their vocations Christians serve for the benefit of their neighbor as masks of God, through engagement in the world and not withdrawal from it. The temporal kingdom is the realm of the law and reason, and yet the same gracious God who provides us with second- and third-article gifts in the spiritual kingdom graciously, mercifully, and undeservedly provides  first-article gifts in the temporal kingdom.

Michael Berg unpacks the natural human desire for life, liberty, and happiness. From Aristotle to America’s fathers, the desire for happiness and the good life has been a driving force. To what extent people have control of the pursuit of the same and what exactly happiness is has been debated, but that happiness (whatever it may be) is something worth having and to be pursued in so far as we are able has been a given. As Berg reminds us, though, only the cross can provide true, meaningful, and lasting perspective, helping Christians to see meaning even in suffering, which is inescapable in this life and undermines all human ploys for the good life (summum bonum) and enduring temporal happiness.

My own article explores Luther’s doctrine of the two kingdoms and how he responded to the changing political atmosphere of his day. Challenged by a potential imperial invasion, Luther, Melanchthon, and the Wittenberg circle were faced with the very stark question of whether it was appropriate for Lutheran princes and imperial cities to mount a defense. Informed by the jurists of constitutional arguments — and yet, to the jurists’ occasional consternation, steadfast in their commitment to the Scripture’s teaching regarding obedience and just war — they carefully addressed the issue of resistance, which was later taken up by Magdeburg in its legendary opposition to the Augsburg Interim and Leipzig Proposal.

Voldemārs Lauciņš expands our horizons with lessons from Latvia in the previous century. While this may be new ground for many readers, they will find it fruitful. It is good to realize that the temporal realm is organized differently elsewhere and presents various challenges and opportunities throughout the world.

Jack Kilcrease provides valuable insight for Christians as they wrestle with the end of Christendom. His solution is delightfully unoriginal: law and gospel. This is a most welcome call not to lose sight of the church’s task and message in the light of new challenges. Moreover, Kilcrease reminds us that there are opportunities in the midst of contemporary tumult. After tracing how we got to where we find ourselves today, he notes that even persecution can serve for the benefit of the church, as it has in the past. This need not be an age of retreat and decline. What this age needs is nothing other than what sinners in every age have needed, whether the culture bore vestiges of a bygone realization of it or not: Christ.

Finally, changing gears and focus, Frederic W. Baue, like Lauciņš, expands our geographical horizons, this time to Ethiopia. Readers will be thankful that the gospel is being preached, taking root, and charting its course in Ethiopia.  They will also, keenly aware of the challenges it faces here in America, not be surprised that it faces challenges abroad as well. We rejoice that confessional, liturgical Lutheranism is making inroads and we pray that the Lord will allow it to continue to do so in Ethiopia, America, and throughout the world.

We are excited to bring you these articles in print. We pray that you are edified by them, and we look forward to receiving correspondence. Life in two kingdoms is as complicated as ever and yet the Christian is blessed to live and love both God and neighbor in each. We are not the first to struggle with two-kingdom theology and, unless our Lord comes soon, we will not be the last. We are not alone; throughout the world Christians are struggling to live as citizens of two realms and to serve well in both. This issue strives to remind us of that and to inform our own thinking by casting a broad view geographically and temporally.

Congress on the Lutheran Confessions

The Association of Confessional Lutherans and The Luther Academy are in the process of planning the next 

Congress on the Lutheran Confessions 

ACL National Free Conference 26

Luther Academy Lecture Series 22

April 15 - 17, 2015

Ramada Mall of America

Bloomington (a suburb of Minneapolis), Minnesota

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Congress Theme: 

MARRIAGE, SEX, and GENDER in the LUTHERAN CHURCH TODAY

—IN LIGHT OF THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS—

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Topics and Speakers (alphabetical):

Canaan or Israel? The Old Testament’s Doctrine of Marriage in the Pentateuch and the Prophets
— Rev. Steven Briel

Cohabiting Couples in the Congregation: Pastoral Ministry and Church Discipline from a Confessional Lutheran Perspective
— Rev. Jonathan Fisk

Marriage and the Family in the Lutheran Confessions 
— Mr. Tim Goeglein

Women’s Ordination and Congregational Roles Revisited: Can the Confessional Lutheran Synods Hold the Line?
— Rev. Brent Kuhlman

Divorce and Remarriage in the Parish and the Parsonage
— Rev. Brian Saunders

Women’s Ordination: More Than Bible Passages
— Dr. David Scaer

Same-Sex Marriage: The Challenges of its U.S. Legalization for Pastors and Congregations
— Mark Stern, Esq.

Luther: What is Marriage Really? 
— Rev. Paul Strawn

Homosexuals in the Congregation: Pastoral Ministry and Church Discipline from a Confessional Lutheran Perspective 
— Dr. Gary Zieroth

Banquet: Roses and Thorns: Advice Toward a Long and Happy Marriage
— Rev. Rolf Preus 

Questions, Information: TheACL@TheACL.org

Join us for another Lutheran Free Conference!

LUTHERAN FREE CONFERENCE

When: November 6-7, 2013

Where: Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota

Featured Speakers:

Rev. Matthew Harrison, President, Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Rev. John Moldstad, President, Evangelical Lutheran Synod

Prof. Steven Paulson, Professor of Systematic Theology, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN

Rev. Mark Schroeder, President, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

For more information on the Lutheran Free Conference, go to www.lutheranfreeconference.org

Who Are Those Witnesses Again?

PROPTER CHRISTUM: Who is a witness?

Words take on different meanings with the passage of time. While this is well-known, it is sometimes surprising to discover one particular word whose meaning has changed without catching our attention. When this transition remains unnoticed, confusion and misunderstanding quickly follow. For such words, understanding what they formerly meant as opposed to what they mean now is crucial for understanding.

The word "witness" falls into this category. Below is an introduction to Rev. Alan Ludwig's careful study of the word and its meaning in Acts. As students of scripture, Lutherans do well to pay careful attention to the definition and use of words. Ludwig's study gives such attention to the word "witness."

The entire essay can be found in the forthcoming festschrift in honor of Daniel Preus: Propter Christum: Christ at the Center. Visit LOGIA's website to reserve your copy. It is being offered at a discounted introductory price of $29.99, and is scheduled to be released in November. Act now to take advantage of the savings!

WHO ARE THOSE WITNESSES AGAIN? Acts 1:8 in Context

— Alan Ludwig

Today it is commonplace, and not only in churches of the Baptist-Evangelical persuasion, to hear sermons that exhort the hearers to "go out and witness." Appeal for this is regularly made to Acts 1:8, which reads in part: "And you will be my witnesses, both in Judea and in Jerusalem and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth." How the preacher has made the move from the original disciples to the people in the pew, from those who received these words from the mouth of Jesus to those who hear them from the preacher's lips, seldom receives an explanation. That all Christians are witnesses is assumed as a self-evident truth that needs no apology.

And yet this easy application of Acts 1:8 to all Christians is a relative latecomer on the ecclesiastical scene. Is it warranted? To answer this question it is necessary to take a careful look at a text that we often take for granted. This study then will include a brief survey of the witness word group in the New Testament-the verb μαρτυρέω and its cognates-and after that examine more closely the peculiar Lukan use of these terms, with special regard to Acts 1:8.

Witness in the New Testament

The Witness words are μαρτυρέω, "to bear witness, testify"; μαρτυρία and μαρτύριον, "witness," "testimony"; and μάρτυς, "one who bears witness or testifies." Some of these words also have compound forms.¹ For full information the reader is referred to the standard lexicons and theological wordbooks.

The Old Testament Background of Witness

In addition to its usual meaning in Greek, this witness word group is heavily flavored by Old Testament usage. There μάρτυς and its related words usually translate d[eand its Hebrew cognates, which have a firm setting in the legal sphere.² The witness is generally one who has gained information firsthand through seeing or hearing, and he testifies to what he knows. God, man, and inanimate things may serve as witnesses. The Torah and its individual parts are also called "testimonies" because they provide written attestation to God's salvation and to the divine will.

Witness in General in the New Testament

Virtually all of the Old Testament uses carry over into the New Testament, though not in equal measure. Especially prominent is the Torah's requirement that every word be established at the mouth of two or three witnesses (Deut 19:15). This is not only a feature of Jewish life regulated by the Torah (Matt 26:59-61; John 8:17-18; Heb 10:28) but also extends to life in the church (Matt 18:16), even to the churches of the Gentile mission (2 Cor 13:1; 1 Tim 5:19; cf. 1 Cor 14:27, 29).

There are two essential characteristics of a witness (μάρτυς): he has gained information, usually by firsthand observation, and he conveys this information to others, often in a formal or legal setting. At the one end of the spectrum, the μάρτυς may be virtually a spectator who observes (Heb 12:1).³ At the other end, the act of testifying and the content of the testimony take precedence over how the testifier came by the information (Rev 12:11, 17). . . .

The Apostolic Witness to Christ

When Jesus tells his disciples that the Paraclete will bear witness concerning him, he goes on to say, "and you also bear witness, because you are with me from the beginning [ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς]" (John 15:26-27; cf. Luke 1:2). The disciples' testimony is the witness of those who have seen and heard firsthand, and it is through this testimony that the Spirit himself will bear witness of Christ (Acts 5:32), just as he has already witnessed to the Messiah through Moses and the Prophets. John states beautifully the role of these eyewitnesses in the opening words of his first epistle:

That which was from the beginning [ἀπ᾿ἀρχῆς],⁴ which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it [μαρτυροῦμεν] and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us-that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1-3 ESV)

The "we" here is surely John and his fellow apostles.⁵ The truth of their testimony is confirmed by their having been present with him "from the beginning" (John 15:27; Acts 1:21-22) and having heard, seen, and touched the Word of Life. . . .

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1. διαμαρτύρομαι, "to give solemn testimony, exhort, warn"; ἐπιμαρτυρέω, "to bear witness, attest"; καταμαρτυρέω, "to testify against"; προμαρτύρομαι, "to bear witness beforehand, predict"; συμμαρτυρέω, "to bear witness with," "support by testimony"; συνεπιμαρτυρέω, "to testify at the same time"; ψευδομαρτυρέω and its noun cognates, "to give false witness," "false witness, false testimony." ↩
2. ʿēd, "witness"; ʿēdâ, "testimony, witness"; ʿēdôt, "testimonies"; ʿēdût, "testimony"; tě‘ûdâ, "attestation"; and the denominative verb ʿwd, "to bear witness, testify." For a more comprehensive treatment, see C. van Leeuwen, "ēd witness," in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, ed. Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann, trans. Mark E. Biddle (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 2:838-46. Editor's note: For the actual Hebrew terms, please see the book.] ↩
3. More is involved in the use of μάρτυς in this passage than the righteous men and women of faith who have finished the course "witnessing" us as we run the race. See Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989), 354–55. ↩
4. This ἀπ᾿ἀρχῆς has been taken in various senses, including from the beginning of creation, from the time of the incarnation, or from the time of Jesus' revelation as Son of God at his baptism. If the last of these is right, then there is a link both with John 15:27 and Acts 1:21–22. For the various views and the arguments in favor of this, see Raymond E. Brown, The Epistles of John, Anchor Bible 30 (New York: Doubleday, 1982), 155–58. ↩
5. So, for example, Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistles of St. John (London: Macmillan, 1886), 4, 6, 9; and other traditional commentators. Modern scholars who attribute the authorship of the epistle to a "Johannine school" of course understand it differently (Brown, Epistles of John, 158–61). ↩

Cultural and Theological Readjustments and the Survival of Lutheranism

PROPTER CHRISTUM: The Survival of Lutheranism

Recent years have seen a re-alignment of church bodies, Lutheran and otherwise, as fallout from decisions made regarding sexuality. Some new church bodies, Rev. David Scaer argues, are putting themselves in an untenable position. Their views on scripture and the ordination of women will lead to the same problems which they are currently fleeing. Scaer addresses this question in his contribution to Propter Christum: Christ at the Center, Luther Academy's forthcoming book. Below you will find some of Scaer's thoughts on the issue.

In order to reserve your copy of the rest of this essay, visit LOGIA's website and take advantage of the pre-order price of $24.99 (a savings of 30%) for Propter Christum: Christ at the Center. This offer will expire at the end of August, so order now!

The book, in honor of the retired director of Luther Academy, Daniel Preus, provides a confessional Lutheran perspective on today's world. Essays address women's ordination, church relations, global challenges to Lutheranism, and other contemporary issues. As such, the book is a great resource for understanding and interacting with the world we live in.

Cultural and Theological Readjustments and the Survival of Lutheranism

— David P. Scaer

Culture inevitably influences what people believe, even to the extent that a church may come to believe that its faith is indistinguishable from its culture. Some have recognized this cultural invasion and have left such churches to form new ones. At its August 2009 convention, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), swept along by prevailing cultural winds, accepted the ordination of practicing homosexuals as well as the blessing of same-sex alliances and marriages in states where these practices are allowed by law. This cultural accommodation has resulted in some leaving the ELCA to form the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) and the less ecclesiastically structured Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC). Similar exoduses have taken place from mainline Episcopal, Reformed, and Presbyterian denominations.

These newly formed churches have a common interest in maintaining traditionally held beliefs. Other issues are reasons for separation, but the blessing of same-sex marriages and the ordination of practicing homosexuals are the most prominent. While these new churches are not debating the legitimacy of women's ordination, this is the real issue-and if it is not addressed, these churches will be little different from the ones they left. For Lutherans in America, the step towards ordaining practicing homosexuals came when the churches forming the ELCA adopted the ordination of women in the 1970s. Women's ordination long has been accepted in the mainline denominations and likely will continue in the new churches. Here is the dilemma for the newly formed churches: They want to establish themselves on a more solidly biblical basis in tune with ancient church practice, but ordaining women as ministers does not belong to the catholic tradition. Commitment to biblical inerrancy does not assure a positive outcome, since Evangelicals who hold to this commitment are divided on women's ordination and the baptism of infants. A prominent argument for Roman Catholics is that the ordination of women deviates from tradition. Paul uses the catholic argument in 1 Corinthians 14:33-34 when he says that in all the churches women are forbidden to preach. For those not up to sifting through the biblical objections to the practice, the catholic argument may be the most convincing. A church is not allowed to go off on its own or make its own rules for the ministry. With a keen ELCA interest in keeping relations with Rome intact (for example, the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification), its dissidents now in the NALC have good reason to reevaluate retaining women clergy. Supporters of women's ordination in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) who favor closer alliances with Rome should also reconsider their position. . . .

A church's challenge is preaching the gospel in terms that can be understood by the people of that time, but it dare not allow it to be swallowed up by its culture. Bible translations are cultural adjustments that allow speaking in terms people can understand. Sermons take the task further in addressing the word of God to issues Christians face in their time, but the church dare not be overcome by the culture. The Old Testament contains the accounts of how Israel was often shaped by its surrounding polytheistic culture and engaged in pagan worship; succumbing to the worship of the neighborhood gods could be a subtitle for the Old Testament. Christians in Corinth did not entirely divest themselves of Greek philosophy, so some denied the resurrection of the dead. No church is immune from being overtaken by its surrounding the culture-not even professedly confessional churches. Recent events are nothing new. As mentioned, ELCA decisions on homosexuality mirrored first culture and then state laws recognizing same-sex marriages, but this was already happening in discussions about ordaining women. At the time this practice was adopted by Lutheran churches, the eventually failed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was making its way through state legislatures. . . .

Forty Articles that Shaped LOGIA

—by Martin Noland

“These are a few of my favorite things . . .” (Rogers and Hammerstein, from The Sound of Music).   That’s one of a few of my favorite songs from the 1960s.  When it comes to LOGIA, I have great difficulty pruning the list of “favorite articles” down to a few.  It sounds too much like “Gospel reductionism” for my taste.  The editors have indulged me, so here, for what it is worth, is my personal list of forty articles published by LOGIA that made the journal what it is today, just in time for LOGIA's 20th Anniversary CD, available for pre-order here.  Individual issues are located here. They are listed in consecutive order.

Hermann Sasse, “The Church’s Confession,” tr. Matthew Harrison LOGIA 1 #1 (Reformation 1992): 5-8.

Erling Teigen, “The Universal Priesthood in the Lutheran Confessions,” LOGIA 1 #1 (Reformation 1992): 9-16.

John T. Pless, “Toward a Confessional Lutheran Understanding of Liturgy,” LOGIA 2 #2 (Eastertide 1993): 9-13.

Richard C. Resch, “Church Music at the Close of the Twentieth Century:  The Entanglement of Sacred and Secular,” LOGIA 2 #2 (Eastertide 1993): 21-27.

Gerald Krispin, “Paul Gerhardt:  Confessional Subscription and the Lord’s Supper,” LOGIA 4 #3 (Holy Trinity 1995): 25-38.

Ronald Feuerhahn, “Hermann Sasse & North American Lutheranism,” LOGIA 4 #4 (Reformation 1995): 11-24.

Matthew Harrison, “Hermann Sasse and EKiD—1848: The Death of the Lutheran Church,” LOGIA 4 #4 (Reformation 1995): 41-48.

Joel Brondos, “The Holy Things for the Holy Ones,” LOGIA 5 #1 (Epiphany 1996): 15-24.

Leigh Jordahl, “J. A. O. Preus,” LOGIA 5 #2 (Eastertide 1996): 45-49.

Robert D. Preus, “A Sermon on Revelation 7:13-17,” LOGIA 5 #3 (Holy Trinity 1996): 5-6.

David P. Scaer, “In Memoriam:  Robert D. Preus,” LOGIA 5 #3 (Holy Trinity 1996): 7-8.

David P. Scaer, “Commemoration Sermon for Dr. Robert D. Preus,” LOGIA 5 #3 (Holy Trinity 1996): 9-10.

David P. Scaer, “Formula of Concord X: A Revised, Enlarged, and Slightly Amended Edition,” LOGIA 6 #4 (Reformation 1997): 27-34.

David P. Scaer, “Missouri at the End of the Century:  A Time for Reevaluation,” LOGIA 7 #1 (Epiphany 1998): 39-52.

Matthew Harrison, “Lutheran Missions Must Lead to Lutheran Churches,” LOGIA 7 #3 (Holy Trinity 1998): 29-34.

Charles L. Cortright, “Luther and Erasmus:  The Debate on the Freedom of the Will,” LOGIA 7 #4 (Reformation 1998): 7-12.

John G. Nordling, “A Lutheran Goes to Rome,” LOGIA 7 #3 (Epiphany 1999): 39-43.

Tom G. A. Hardt, “The Confessional Principle:  Church Fellowship in the Ancient and in the Lutheran Church,” LOGIA 8 #2 (Eastertide 1999): 21-30.

John T. Pless, “Liturgy and Pietism—Then and Now,” LOGIA 8 #4 (Reformation 1999): 19-28.

Daniel Preus, “The Place of the Luther Academy in Today’s World,” LOGIA 9 #1 (Epiphany 2000): 27-34.

Steven Hein, “Tentatio,”  LOGIA 10 #2 (Eastertide 2001): 33-42.

Paul T. McCain, “Receiving the Gifts of Christ with Thankfulness and Faithfulness: Thoughts on the Bride of Christ’s Royal Priesthood and Holy Ministry,” LOGIA 10 #3 (Holy Trinity): 9-12.

John G. Nordling, “Why Should I Learn Latin When Everything Has Already Been Translated Into English,” LOGIA 11 #2 (Eastertide 2002): 27-34.

Hermann Sasse, “Union and Confession (March 1934),” tr. Gerald Krispin LOGIA 11 #4 (Reformation 2002): 5-8.

Norman Nagel, “Lured from the Water, the Little Fish Perish,” LOGIA 12 #1 (Epiphany 2003): 5-10.

John W. Kleinig, “The Lord’s Supper as a Sacrificial Banquet,” LOGIA 12 #1 (Epiphany 2003): 11-16.

Kurt Marquart, “The Issue of Church Fellowship and Unionism in the Missouri Synod and Its Associated Churches,” LOGIA 12 #1 (Epiphany 2003): 17-26.

Daniel Preus, “Church Discipline in Early Missouri and Lutheran Identity,” LOGIA 12 #1 (Epiphany 2003): 27-34.

Erling T. Teigen, “Ecumenism as Fellowship and Confession in the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America,” LOGIA 12 #2 (Eastertide 2003): 5-16.

Daniel Preus, “How Can We Give a Witness for Jesus Christ in the Public Square while Avoiding the Errors of Unionism and Syncretism,” LOGIA 12 #3 (Holy Trinity 2003): 17-22.

Reinhard Slenczka, “Magnus Consensus: The Unity of the Church in the Truth and Society’s Pluralism,” LOGIA 13 #3 (Holy Trinity 2004): 21-40.

James L. Brauer, “Trusty Steed or Trojan Horse?  The Common Service in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book,” 14 #3 (Holy Trinity 2005): 21-30.

Harold Senkbeil, “Till the Trumpets Sound:  Hold Fast and Hold Forth,” LOGIA 15 #2 (Eastertide 2006): 17-28.

James A. Nestingen, “Failing Structures, Vibrant Hopes,” LOGIA 15 34 (Reformation 2006): 15-18.

Wilhelm Loehe, “Three Pieces on the Deaconess,” tr. Holger Sonntag LOGIA 16 #2 (Eastertide 2007): 21-26.

Jon Steffen Bruss, “Melanchthon and the Wittenberg Reception of Hellenism, 1518-1526:  Bonae Literae et Renascentes Musae,” LOGIA 17 #4 (Reformation 2008): 7-12.

Klemet Preus, “Doctrine and Practice:  Resisting the Influence of Evangelicalism,” LOGIA 18 #2 (Eastertide 2009): 13-22.

Gottfried Martens, “JDDJ After Ten Years,” LOGIA 18 #3 (Holy Trinity 2009): 11-26.

Gregory Schulz, “On Terminating the Church’s Professors,” LOGIA 19 #4 (Reformation 2010): 13-20.

Jobst Schoene, “Does Luther Have a Future in Germany?” LOGIA 20 #1 (Epiphany 2011): 5-12.

Lutheran Free Conference in 2011

Save the date for the Lutheran Free Conference on November 9-10 at Martin Luther College's Auditorium in New Ulm, MN. See http://www.lutheranfreeconference.com/ for more details and to register.

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"I have been a subscriber for many years.  It is always a pleasure to read LOGIA. More than that, I find that the articles are timeless.  I can go to a back issue from the early nineties and see that the authors are spot on with their articles." Pastor Stephen Schumacher