LUTHER says numerous times that God bestows His pardoning and renewing grace through the Gospel which is proclaimed in the Christian Church. Christ entrusted to His disciples the office and power of the keys. Through this office and the Gospel proclaimed by it Christ makes men partakers of the blessings of His finished work, and works faith in penitent hearts. Luther says in the Smalcald Articles: "We ought and must constantly maintain that God does not wish to deal with us otherwise than through the spoken word and the sacraments, and that whatever without the word and sacraments is extolled as spirit is the devil himself."1 In the article on the Gospel he says that the first and basic form of the Gospel application is "the spoken word by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world, which is the peculiar office of the Gospel." God gives His grace and help also through the sacraments, the absolution, and the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren.2
Luther again and again inculcates that God forgives sins through the oral proclamation of the Gospel. "The oral word must before anything else be present and be grasped with the ears if the Holy Spirit is to come into the heart, who enlightens us through the word and works faith."3 "You must hold to the words of Christ and be sure that God will not forgive sins in any other way than through the oral word, which is the manner He has ordained for us men. If you do not seek forgiveness in the word, you in vain stare toward heaven, expecting grace from there, or, as they [the "fanatics"] say, an internal forgiveness."4 "There is no other way to have sins forgiven than through the Word.... The Lord, our God, has not promised to forgive our sins through any work that we do, but He has connected it with the unique work of Christ who has suffered and risen from the dead. This work He has, through the word, placed in the mouth of the apostles and the ministers of the Church, and in cases of emergency of all Christians, to the end that they through it would distribute and proclaim the forgiveness of sins to those who desire it. Thus, if you there will seek forgiveness of sins you will surely find it.... But if you do not wish to seek it there, you shall be bound to your sins, do what you will."5 "Let, therefore, every man seek the forgiveness of sins from men, and from nowhere else. In that way alone can it be found, for the commandment of our Lord Christ is this: 'Verily, verily I say unto you: Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven' (Matthew 18:18). And again: 'Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them' (John 20:23). God will not tolerate that each man starts to build his own ladder to heaven; He alone wants to be the builder."6
On the other hand, Luther strongly emphasizes the authority of the written word of God. He says again and again that it is God's word and as such the highest norm and standard of our faith and life. All human doctrines, which are not in harmony with the Scriptures, must be rejected. He set Scripture against the doctrines of the Roman Church, requiring that Church to reconcile its doctrines with the word of God. "We request the papists that they first reconcile their doctrines with the Scriptures. If they accomplish that, we will observe their doctrines.... We censure the doctrines of men, not because they are spoken by men, but because they are lies and blasphemies against the Scriptures. And the Scriptures, although they also were written by men, are not of men nor from men, but from God. Now since Scriptures and the doctrines of men are contrary the one to the other, one must lie and the other be true."7
In this statement Luther says (1) that although Scripture is written by men, it is not of men but from God, and therefore (2) all doctrines which are in conflict with the Scriptures are lies; the word of God in the Bible is true. The question whether the Bible is errorless in every word and verbally inspired, or whether there are discrepancies and minor errors in it, was no problem for Luther and his time in general. The men of the Reformation period did not waste their time and energy in such fruitless quarrels on verbal inspiration, or the origin and form of Scripture, as the "Lutherans" of our time often do. They were so busy in studying the contents of the Scriptures that they did not have time for it. They simply believed that the Scriptures are "from God," being therefore the God-given norm of faith and life. If there are some discrepancies which cannot be harmonized, they do not affect any article of Christian faith. "When discrepancies occur in Holy Scriptures and we cannot harmonize them let it pass, it does not endanger the article of the Christian faith..."8 The Lutherans of our time, who are enmeshed in a controversy on the "discrepancies" of Scripture, would do well if they would follow this word of Luther and let the whole question pass, and turn their whole attention to the proclamation of the word of God to erring and lost men, as Luther did.
When Luther was at the Diet of Worms, 1521, he said that he was "overcome by the writings" of the Scriptures which he had quoted. His "conscience was captive to the word of God," and therefore he could not recant anything.9 "We must have," he said another time, "a pure faith which does not believe anything that is not based on Scripture."10 "Scripture alone is to be believed even if all the angels would teach otherwise and heaven and earth fall down in ruins."11 The Scriptures must be believed in their literal sense, Luther emphasized. As early as 1516-17 he rejected the artificial method of Scripture interpretation used in the Catholic Church. He demanded that the word of God is to be taken and believed as it is, without adding any "allegorical," "spiritual," or other artificial interpretations to it. Our faith "must above all things be based on clear Scriptures, which are to be understood simply according to the sound and meaning of the words."12
The heart of God's revelation in the Bible is the good news of Christ and salvation in Him. Luther illustrates this by saying that the written word is like the swaddling clothes in which Christ was wrapped in the manger, or the temple where Joseph and Mary found Him. By these "swaddling clothes" Luther means primarily the Old Testament, "the writings of the prophets and the law"; in them "He is wrapped, for they contain Him, speak of Him, and testify of Him."13 Sometimes Luther also speaks of preaching as the "manger" or "temple" in which Christ "lies" and where He can be found: "You will find the Son only in the temple.... Nothing but the word of God is to be preached in the Christian Church.... Christ is wholly wrapped in the Bible.... The manger is preaching wherein He lies and from which He is grasped."14
Luther did not see any conflict between his conviction that Scripture is the normative word of God, and that God bestows His grace and forgives sins by means of the spoken word and sacraments. All preaching and administration of sacraments have their source in the written word of God and must take place according to it. Therefore, the proclamation of the word (in sermons and in personal absolution and counselling) and the administration of sacraments is inseparably connected with the Scriptures. Only a scriptural teaching, preaching, and consolation leads men to the knowledge of Christ and salvation in Him.
Luther demands that we should in simple faith submit to the word of God in all things, rejecting all the arguments of reason and human opinion. "When we hear that God says something, we must simply hold to it, so that we believe it without any argument and bring our reason into captivity to the obedience of Christ."15 A taproot of man's ungodliness and sin is his unwillingness to submit in obedience to the word of God, his doubting of the Word, and replacing it with his own opinions. This is the source of all wickedness, idolatry, and of all religious and moral errors. In it also originates the mixture of human wisdom and philosophy with divine revelation, so common in Christian Churches. Through it the truth of God is spoiled, and consequently men are not able to find the way of salvation and truth. Only by simply cleaving to the revelation of God in the Scriptures individual men as well as churches avoid errors. This was the "formal principle" of the Reformation.
Holy Scripture is the norm and rule of our faith and life. It is also the norm and source of all Christian teaching, preaching, consolation, and administration of sacraments. But is the written word of the Bible also a means of grace whereby God forgives sins, justifies, and imparts His Holy Spirit to work faith? In other words, has Christ given the office of reconciliation, or the power of the keys, also to the written word of the Bible and not only to the servants of God living in each time? Or do the latter only have the ministry of reconciliation, the Bible being the source and norm of their ministry?
These questions have been asked a number of times in the Lutheran Church, and they are being asked in our time again in various countries, and not least in America.16
We stated above that Luther in general teaches that God bestows His pardoning and renewing grace by means of the spoken word, through the service of the ministry of reconciliation. His emphasis is definitely on the spoken word, when it comes to the means by which God bestows His grace upon men. But when it comes to the norm and rule of our faith and life, his emphasis is on the written word of the Bible. He often says that the Gospel, in its actual sense, is the spoken, proclaimed word. In his Preface to his Church Postil he says: "The Gospel is not a writing (or scripture, schrifft) but a spoken word which explains Scripture."17 In the first sermon of the same Postil he says:"The Old Testament alone ... is called Scripture. For the New Testament must, in the actual sense, be a living word and not writing (or scripture, schrifft). Therefore Christ did not write anything but commanded to preach and spread the Gospel, which was hidden in Scripture."18 "It belongs to the nature of the Gospel and the New Testament that it is preached and proclaimed in an oral living voice."19 In a later sermon Luther again says that "the law and the Old Testament are dead writings, put into books, but the Gospel must be a living voice."20 Therefore the Church is a "mouth-house" (Bethphage) and not a "pen-house."21
The writing of the Gospels became necessary because of the fact that "there arose heretics, false teachers, and manyfold errors, so that the sheep of Christ were offered poison instead of pasture. Therefore, ... in order to save at least some sheep from the wolves, the writing of books and Scriptures was started with the purpose of leading Christ's sheep to Scripture and... keeping them from wolves."22 Thus, the purpose of the New Testament writings was to provide against false doctrines and to keep Christians in the divine truth. The actual Gospel through which men were led to Christ and made partakers of salvation in Him, or the Gospel as a means of grace, continued to be the oral word.
Luther often used the term "external word." By it he meant primarily the oral proclamation of the Gospel. He emphasized, however, that it must be based on the written word and draw from it. It must be "a preaching of the Scriptures," as Luther states in the Smalcald Articles: "In those things which concern the spoken, outward word, we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit of grace to no one, except through or with the preceding outward word. Thereby we are protected against enthusiasts, that is, spirits who boast that they have the Spirit without and before the word..., as they boast that they have received the Spirit without the preaching of Scriptures."23
In his explanation of Psalm 51(1532) Luther says: "When our conscience is troubled in the sense of the wrath of God, there is no other remedy than a good word, either a word which is spoken by a brother who is present or a word which we recollect through a word previously heard (per praeteritum auditum)... from the mouth of the Holy Spirit.... You must have a spoken word. This verse speaks against those who hate the outward word."24
The Holy Spirit can give a person consolation both through the word spoken by a brother who is present and by bringing to memory a word which he has previously heard. But consolation and confirmation of faith may also be received through the study of the written word of God. All true consolation is derived from the Scriptures. "Scripture alone comforts.... For if He does not give a consoling word to the heart, the heart will never find it."25 It is not in the power of man to appropriate for his comfort a spoken or written word. The effect of all word depends on the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. He must make it effective in the heart and conscience. The Spirit uses the word as He wills, or as the Augsburg Confession states: "By the word and sacraments, as by instruments, the Holy Spirit is given; who worketh faith, where and when it pleaseth God, in those who hear the Gospel."26
The only clear passage in which Luther says that the Holy Spirit may come into the heart through the reading of the written word is in his commentary on the First Epistle of John. True, it belongs to the second-hand sources, being written not by Luther himself, but the words of Luther are probably recorded in it in a reliable form. In his explanation of I John 5:13 ("These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God") Luther says:
The apostle wants that this is to be understood of the increase of faith, in order that we may day by day grow in the sure knowledge and certainty.... Writing is a means or way whereby we attain to knowledge and faith.... If writing can accomplish this, how much more effectually does a living speech do it.... Christ comes through the testimony, through Scripture and spoken word (venit per scripturam et verbum vocale).... Why should we be asked to read the Bible if Scripture is dead? If they [the "fanatics"] have received the Holy Spirit without a spoken word and Scripture, why do they write books and bother others with a work that they themselves despise?... We teach that the word is to be read and heard; through reading the Holy Spirit comes where He wills (docemus, ut legatur, auditur verbum, lecto venit spiritus sanctus, ubi voluerit).... The Scriptures are to be written in the heart, they must be read and meditated upon. Satan cannot stay where he hears God's word read.27In this statement Luther emphasizes, as usually, that faith and the Holy Spirit can be received only through the "outward" word, written and spoken. True, he first remarks that the apostle speaks here of an increase and strengthening of faith and spiritual knowledge. But later he says that the Holy Spirit also comes into the heart and works faith through the reading of a written word.
The words, "Christ comes through the testimony, through Scripture and spoken word," and, "if writing can accomplish this, how much more effectually does a living speech do it," seem to offer a clue for the right understanding of Luther's meaning: The written word of Scripture and the spoken word, based on Scripture, together are the "outward word" and "testimony" through which God works faith and gives His Spirit. The spoken or oral word has its foundation and source in the Bible, and it is the actual means of grace. Yet, in exceptional cases, God may work faith through the written word. Particularly He nourishes and strengthens thereby the faith which already exists.
The Christian Church is not a "pen-house" but a "mouth-house," Luther says. When he, in his book On the Councils and the Churches (1539), speaks of the marks or characteristics of the Church, he does not mention the written word but only the oral testimony and preaching of the word, the use of the keys, the administration of sacraments, etc.28 Bibles can be kept on bookshelves and in bookstores, and even on the lecterns of churches, and yet there are no true believers and no real oral proclamation of the Gospel and testimony for Christ. Oral witnessing and true preaching of the Gospel can be found only in the communion of saints.
Luther gives both to Scripture (and the written word in general) and the oral testimony and preaching of the word their proper places in the Christian Church: the written word of God is primarily a "revelation-word," which is the norm and standard of all faith, life, and teaching. The spoken word (in preaching, absolution, and sacraments) is the actual "means-of-grace-word," through which God forgives sins, works faith, and imparts His Holy Spirit. Luther never says that Scripture has the office or ministry of reconciliation, or that Christ has given the power of the keys to the written word; neither does Scripture itself contain any such statement. The ministry of reconciliation and the power the keys are given to the living Christians of each generation, not to Scripture. God may work faith through the written word, namely faith in Him and His truth and promises, so that the penitent sinner can seek the Gospel in the Church from the ministry of reconciliation and be justified by believing it. In Luther's view, Scripture is not given for the purpose that a person by means of it, independently from the Church, might care for the salvation of his soul.
In the period of the Reformation Luther and the Swiss reformers (Zwingli and Calvin) differed in their views of the significance of the written and spoken word of God: according to Zwingli and Calvin, God works faith and justifies through the reading of Scripture, and even without it; according to Luther God does it through the word proclaimed orally in the Christian Church. This is seen also from his words in the Small Catechism (explanation of the third article of the Creed): "in which Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all sins to me and all believers." Emil Brunner says that "this is one of the points at which Luther and Calvin differ very widely; for Luther the viva vox ecclesiae [the living word of the Church] is the basic and determining thing, for Calvin it is the written word, the illustrior forma or doctrina (Institutio, LV, 8, 6).29 The Lutherans of the sixteenth century believed that prayer and meditation upon the written word in solitude is not enough for justification and salvation; the Gospel proclaimed in the Church through the ministry of reconciliation is also needed. In the "Reformed" view it is enough to read and meditate upon the word.
At this point a strange development has taken place in the Protestant Churches. Most Lutherans in our time vigorously oppose the view of Luther that the actual means of grace is the spoken word. In general they think that the written word of Scripture is the actual means of grace. When alarmed sinners come to them, instead of proclaiming to them the forgiveness of sins or absolution, they often direct them to read the Scriptures, or show them some passages of the Scriptures, urging them to believe in them.
In Lutheran dogmatics it is generally taught that wherever a person uses the word of God in any form, God is operative in it and can bestow forgiveness of sins and salvation upon him. Or we read: "We believe also that the Bible is a means of grace. In it the Spirit reveals Christ as the Savior.... In it the Spirit offers salvation in Jesus. Through it the Spirit works repentance and faith unto salvation (Romans 10:17). Through it the Spirit gives salvation to those who believe (Ephesians 1 :13-14).... Such is the Lutheran confession." Dr. John P. Milton, whose words these are, presents as the means of grace the Bible and the sacraments. He does not speak of the spoken word and absolution at all.30
This change in the Lutheran conception of the Word has probably taken place thus: Luther's teaching that grace is given through the oral, or spoken, word, was first changed to read: grace is given through the word of God. Then this word was understood to mean both the written and spoken word, and finally the emphasis was placed upon the written word of Scripture. So the Lutherans landed in a curious doctrine which is prevalent in our time: the ministry of reconciliation and the power of the keys is given primarily to the Bible, and then also to men. In many, and even most, cases God gives His grace through the written word. The service of Christian ministers or other believers is not necessary in conversion. A person who has fallen from baptismal grace can get back to God's grace by reading the Bible and by going to the Lord's Supper. In most cases Lutherans no longer follow the principle of Luther that God's word in Scripture is to be taken and followed in its literal sense, without changing its meaning. Paul's words in Romans 10:17, "Faith cometh by hearing," are not taken as they are, but are changed to mean, not only hearing, but also reading. The words of Christ, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them," are not taken literally but are interpreted to mean that God remits through the Gospel, proclaimed or read. Paul's words in II Corinthians 5, "God... hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.... Now then we are ambassadors for Christ ..." are understood to mean, not that the ministry and ambassadorship is given to living men, but that it is given to the holy Book also, the Bible. Luther never departed this much from the literal meaning of the Word. Thus, most Lutherans of our time profess faith in Scripture as the inspired and infallible word of God, but in practice they make void and of no effect some clear statements of the written Word through their doctrinal tradition.
There is another strange development in the Protestant world. In our time in numerous cases the "Reformed" are representatives of the original Lutheran tradition, or are close to it in their emphasis -- and Lutherans often regard them as heretics for this very fact. It is easy to find from "Reformed" religious and theological literature statements like these: "God's chief agency in reaching souls is other souls." "God, the truth of the Gospel, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is mediated to another life through some human soul. God has no other way of reaching men except through man. God, the Bible, the Gospel, the Holy Spirit, all ... come looking for some man ... who will become a medium of transfer into another soul."31 A. C. Archibald, the writer of these words, is a Baptist. We take another quotation: "According to the plain, simple teaching of Scripture, God has no other plan for reaching the unsaved, except through the saved men and women. I have not been able to find in the Bible the record of a single soul converted without God having called in some human agency."32 Oscar Lowry, the writer of these words, was a teacher at the Moody Bible Institute.
When we compare the statements of some present-day Lutherans and of some modern "Reformed" we see the amazing thing that the Lutherans teach essentially a "Reformed" doctrine of the means of grace, while the "Reformed" in many cases teach an essentially "Lutheran" doctrine. Emil Brunner, a Reformed theologian, also emphasizes the "Lutheran" view : "The mistaken idea, that merely through the Bible can we become and remain Christians, constantly reappears.... God wills to give us His word only through human action, in order that He may force us to abandon our individualism."33
Yet, there have been and there are Lutherans who follow Luther at this point. Among Lutheran revival movements Laestadianism, which has spread in the Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish Churches in Europe and America, holds to the teaching of Luther at this point. In Sweden Bishop Einar Billing and Archbishop Nathan Soederblom emphasized Christ's living presence in the Church and the truth that He uses men as his instruments. In Germany and Sweden the Neo-Lutheran movement in the nineteenth century stressed the thought that the Church is the spiritual Mother of believers and the carrier of the saving word of God.34 In Finland Prof. Antti J. Pietilae taught that Scripture is the inspired and authoritative revelation-word of God, but the word which is spoken and proclaimed in the Christian Church is the means-of-grace-word through which God saves men and imparts his grace to them. This word draws from the Bible and has its norm in it, but it is to be distinguished from it.35
In our time Luther scholars have again called attention to this teaching of Luther. Regin Prenter in Denmark gives an extensive and essentially correct account of the thoughts of the Reformer in his work Spiritus Creator.36 In America Taito A. Kantonen shows in his book Resurgence of the Gospel that Luther lays emphasis upon oral proclamation of the Gospel as the distinctive medium of the word of the Gospel. He remarks that although this emphasis is important in Luther's conception of the "living word," yet it has been largely forgotten in the later identification of divine revelation with the written word. According to Luther, Kantonen says, "the positive task of presenting Christ and awakening faith belongs primarily to the oral word.... The living word requires its own dynamic medium, the living voice."37
Luther is somewhat nearer to the Catholic view than to the Reformed (or rather, to the "Lutheran" view of our time) in the question of the "living word." The Catholic Church teaches that God does not only speak in the Bible. In and through the Church the living and present Christ is continuously speaking. "Ecclesia docens est vox loqnentis Dei." (The teaching church is the voice of the speaking God.) Karl Barth, in writing of this, exclaims: "No! we say. The ecclesia docensis not the vox loquentis Dei."38 In this question Luther certainly teaches the same as the Catholic Church. In fact, the statement that "the teaching Church is the voice of the speaking God" is identical with the words of Christ: "He that heareth you heareth me; and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me" (Luke 10:16). There is, however, an important difference in the interpretation of this statement. The Catholic Church says that whatever the Church teaches, is the voice of God. Luther says that when the Church teaches and proclaims the Gospel in harmony with the Scriptures, its voice is the voice of God. If it teaches some thing that is in conflict with the written word of God, its voice is the voice of the devil.
We conclude with a statement of Dr. Aulus Zidbaeck, a Finnish theologian: "As it is erroneous to give preference to the doctrinal traditions of the Church at the cost of the word of Scripture, as Rome does, so it is pernicious to... give the Bible that position in the order of salvation which according to its own revelation belongs to the living Church and to Christ who is present in it."39
1 SA III, viii.
2 SA III, iv.
3 WA (=Weimarer Ausgabe, the Weimar edition of Luther's works) 29:581, Church Postil, 19th Sunday after Trinity, gospel sermon.
4 WA 30II:46 ff., On the Keys, 1530.
5 WA 52:273, House Postil, 1st Sunday after Easter.
6 WA 52: 500, 19th Sunday after Trinity.
7 WA 10II:92,1, That Doctrines of Men Are To Be Rejected, 1522.
8 WA 46:726, quoted from T. A. Kantonen's book Resurgence of the Gospel, 118.
9 Kluckholm und Wrede, Deutsche Reichtagsakten unter Karl V, II:560 ff., according to M. Reu, Luther and the Scriptures (Columbus, Ohio: 1944), 28, 144.
10 WA 10I:1, 446, 2, Church Postil, Sunday after Christmas, gospel sermon.
11 WA 8:490,12, On the Misuse of Masses, 1521.
12 WA 10I:1, 417, Church Postil, Sunday after Christmas, gospel sermon.
13 WA 10I:576, 12, Church Postil,Epiphany gospel sermon.
14 WA 12:413, 39; WA 12:418, 25; Church Postil, 1st Sunday after Epiphany, gospel sermon.
15 WA 42:118, 11, Commentary on Genesis, 3:4,5.
16 Kantonen, Chapter III, aroused in 1949 an extensive controversy on the relationship between the written word of Scripture and the spoken word. In Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian Lutheranism the Laestadian awakening has made this question a burning issue in large circles. In Denmark Grundtvig emphasized the oral word as the means of grace, etc.
17 WA 10I:1, 17, 6.
18 WA 10I:2, 35, 1.
19 WA 10I:48, 1.
20 WA 10I:204, 20, 4th Sunday in Advent, gospel sermon.
21 WA 10I:48, 1.
22 WA 10I: 1, 627, 1, Epiphany gospel sermon.
23 SA II, viii.
24 WA 40II:410, 2, Hs. (=Handschrift or manuscript text).
25 WA 10I:2, 75 ff., Church Postil, 2nd Sunday in Advent, epistle sermon.
26 AC V.
27 WA 20:789.
28 WA 50:629 ff.
29 Brunner, The Divine Imperative (original title: Das Gebot und die Ordnungen, translated by Olive Wyon, Philadelphia, 1947), 528.
30 John P. Milton, The Way (Rock Island, Illinos: Augstana Book Concern, 7th printing, 1942), 47-53.
31 Arthur C. Archibald, New Testament Evangelism (Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 3d ed., 1947), 90, 110.
32 Oscar Lowry, Pentecostal Baptism and Enduement with Power (Chicago: The Bible Institute Colportage Association, 843-845 N. Wells St.), 4.
33 Brunner, 530.
34 Aulis Zidbaeck, Juhani Raattama Eraeiden Lutherin ydinnaekemyusten uudistajana/J.R. is a renewer of some basic insights of Luther/ (Turku, 1941), 33 ff., 118.
35 Pietalae, Kristillinene dogmatiikka/Christian Dogmatics/III (Helsinki, 1932), 277.
36 Full title: Spiritus creator, Studier I Luthers theologi. 2nd ed. (Aarhus, 1946), 114-141.
37 Kantonen, 122 ff.
38 Barth, Dogmatik (Muechen, 1927), 347 ff., quoted from Zidbaeck, 25.
39 Zidbaeck, 30.
28 December 1997
This essay was first published in the May 1950 issue of THE LUTHERAN QUARTERLY and is now reprinted by permission of the editors. (For information on LQ subscriptions, write to Virgil F. Thomson, Managing Editor, at: VFThom@aol.com.)
doctor uuraas saarnivaara (b. 1908) took his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. His doctoral thesis was published in 1947 under the title, Luther Discovers the Gospel: New Light upon Luther's Way from Medieval Catholicism to Evangelical Faith. Dr. Saarnivaara served as dean of the Inter-Lutheran Theological School in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was a lecturer in theology at Ryttyla, Finland.