This year marks the 65th anniversary of the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which convened in Evanston, Illinois. The German-Lutheran theologian, Edmund Schlink (1903-1984), delivered the opening plenary address. His remarks were translated as "Christ--The Hope of the World" and published in The Ecumenical Review and The Christian Century.
Hans Spalteholz and I have provided a fresh translation of this address in the first volume of Edmund Schlink Works: Ecumenical and Confessional Writings (The Coming Christ and Church Traditions and After the Council), which I edited in 2017. This five-volume project is being published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Hans Spalteholz and I have provided a fresh translation of this address in the first volume of Edmund Schlink Works: Ecumenical and Confessional Writings (The Coming Christ and Church Traditions and After the Council), which I edited in 2017. This five-volume project is being published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Earlier this year (March 6), which also marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Schlink's death (20 May 1984), I posted the first two sections of his famous address. Below are the final four sections (pp. 269-275 from vol. 1 of ESW):
III.
Christ is thus coming to the world as its Redeemer and Judge.
We do not in truth hope for him as Savior of the world if we do not at the same
time await him as Judge of the world. Just as little, however, do we fear him
in truth as Judge, if we do not await him as Savior. Then he will receive some
and the others he will reject. He will raise up the ones to life and the others
to death. To some he will say, “Come to me, you who are blessed by my Father,” and
to the others, “Go away from me, you who are cursed!” (Mt. 25.34, 41). He will
shatter to pieces the rule of the mighty, of the rich, of the self-secure with their
unrighteousness, and he will destroy the complacency of the satisfied, of those
who are laughing and dancing, and those who are at home in this world. But the
spiritually poor, those who suffer, those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, the peacemakers (Mt. 5.3ff.), those who look longingly for his
coming (Mt. 25.1ff.)—all these he will save.
This future separation is taking place already now.
Through the word of the cross God is already now putting to shame the wisdom, the
virtue, and the power of this world, and he is saving the foolish, the unworthy,
and the powerless. “God chose what is low and despised in this world, even
things that are not, in order to bring to nothing what is something” (1 Cor.
1.28f.)
Already now the coming redemption is taking place. Already
in the midst of this world, the gospel announces the acquittal of believers in
the coming judgment. Through baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the believer takes
part, already now, in the power of the resurrection to come. Whoever is reborn
to a living hope through the Holy Spirit is already a new creature. Christ thus
gathers his people through the gospel, already now in the midst of this world, to
walk with him in a new life. In the church the coming new creation [Schöpfung] is already a present reality: “If anyone is in Christ, that one is a new
creature [Kreatur]. The old is past.
Behold, everything has become new” (2 Cor. 5.17).
For this reason, the time in which we live is the end
time:
In his resurrection Christ broke through the spell of
this world and was exalted to be Lord over the world. All people and powers are
subject to Christ, whether they know it or not, whether they acknowledge him or
revolt against him.
In his coming again he will make his victory visible to
all and bring to an end every tumult of this world.
The time of this world is thus solidly circumscribed by
the victory of Christ. To break out of this encirclement is absolutely impossible.
In this situation of hopelessness, the call of the gospel sounds forth, by
which the world is summoned to acknowledge its Lord. It is the end time. That
means, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts!” (Heb.
3.7f.).
That this is the end time seems to many people to be disproved
by the nearly 2000 years that have elapsed since the coming of Jesus. Many have
become perplexed about the promise of his future appearance. But the long
stretch of time is no refutation of the promise. It is not a sign of God’s
weakness, as if he were unable to fulfill what he proclaimed through Jesus and
the apostles. It is the time of God’s patience, God wills that many be saved. It
is the time of the church, of the growing body of Christ. But when the body of
Christ shall have grown to full stature, when the number of the elect shall
have been completed, then the world will pass away and then shall the new
creation step forth from its hiddenness.
IV.
What does it mean to hope in Christ?
To hope means not to sleep, but to be awake and on highest
alert. To hope means not to dream, but to be awake in radical soberness. Being
sober does not mean the calculations of this world, but the expectation of
Jesus Christ. To hope does not mean to grow tired, but to be active with the
greatest exertion. Not paralysis but activity is characteristic of those in the
apostolic age in whom Christian hope is alive, for we do not know at which hour
the Lord will come.
What are the acts of hope?
The first action of
hope is to proclaim the gospel to the whole world. The Assembly of the World
Council has rightly made evangelization the theme of its Second Section. Because
God redeems through the gospel, and only through the gospel, therefore there is
emblazoned above the one who hopes the command of the redeemer to proclaim the gospel.
If God has called us out of the bondages of this world, then he send us into
the world so that we call the others.
This command holds true for everyone who hopes in Christ.
No one can keep this hope silently to himself or herself without losing it.
This command makes us debtors
to all people. God does not want anyone to be lost.
This command demands that we repudiate the unquestioned assumptions of our nationality and cultural
heritage. Even more, as has often enough been the case in the history of
missions, we must become a Jew to the Jews, a Gentile to the Gentiles, weak to
the weak—in order to win them. Only in self-denial will we be a servant of
Christ (compare 1 Cor. 9.19ff.).
The command of God the Redeemer requires the greatest haste, for we do not know how much time
is still left.
Absolutely decisive, however, is that we proclaim the
gospel purely and rightly.[[i]] The preliminary work of the Second
Section has concerned itself above all with the methods of evangelization. The Assembly itself must deal to a
greater extent with the content of
evangelization. That is all about the message of God’s judgment over against
the world and the sole salvation that comes by faith in Christ.
Delivering this message appears difficult, for the world does
not want to hear anything about its end, and the word of the cross is
foolishness to it. And yet the proclamation of the gospel is basically easy and
full of unspeakable joy, for we do not have to subject the world to Christ, but
rather long ago God has already placed it under Christ. We have only to
proclaim to the world the one who is already its Lord. It is not we who have to
save people, but rather Christ wants to speak through our witness himself and
to do his saving actions. It is not we who bring about faith, but rather God’s
Spirit.
V.
The second action
of hope is to work for the just ordering of this world. This is rightly the
theme of the Third through Sixth Sections.
The ones waiting for the coming Christ know about God’s
patience and long-suffering, by which he still continually preserves this world
despite its arrogance and the fact that it has fallen into judgment. He allows his
sun to shine on the good and the evil. He allows both believers and unbelievers
to live. He preserves not only the Christians but also the heathen and the anti-Christians.
To all of them God the Preserver gives days of grace in which to decide for
Jesus Christ.
For this reason, the command of God the Preserver is at
the same time emblazoned above those who hope. He commands us to work for the
preservation of every human life, regardless of whether or not these people
believe in Christ, and also regardless of their nationality or race or social
status. He thus also commands us to be concerned for their freedom, for God preserves
people in order that they may make responsible decisions in his presence. But working
for life and freedom means being concerned for earthly justice and earthly
peace—among individuals, social classes, races, nations, and states—and active
participation in the ordering of human society in the broadest sense, not only
in assisting individuals personally but also, for example, in law-making.
Like the command of God the Redeemer, so also the command
of God the Preserver applies to every
person who hopes in Christ. Such a person cannot leave this expectation solely
to political leaders.
Likewise, this command makes us debtors to all people. Those who hopes are not permitted to
restrict their assistance to the circle of those who think like themselves.
Furthermore, this command demands that we repudiate the customary and unquestioned
assumptions, and urges us to great haste,
since for the first time in their history the nations face the task of ordering
humankind on a global scale, and since at the same time the former orderings
show themselves to be both inadequate and broken.
The Christian cannot withdraw from the struggle among political
programs and secular hopes, for the world wants immortality for itself and considers
its programs as salvation. Because Christians are freed from utopianism by their
expectation of the Lord, they owe the world a sober witness. They have to expose
the real situation of humankind and cut through the fog of propaganda. Because
Christians are set free by faith from legalistic thinking, they can never be
satisfied with general programs. They have to lift up their voice when doctrine
is turned into an anathema and existing law is used to support injustice, and
to call for those actions that are required in the concrete historical
situation. Because Christians are saved by the sacrifice of Christ, in the
struggle for a just ordering they will be selfless in defense of their own
interests, but demanding and adamant in their concern for the enslaved, the
hungry, and the forgotten. Because Christians have the patience of God in mind,
they will oppose with all their strength the use of weapons for mass
destruction and they will also seek peace and understanding where this appears
hopeless. Because Christians hope in Christ, they will be fearless in the midst
of all the menacing threats of this world.
With all this in mind, we cannot forget that peace on
earth is not in itself peace with God. Justice [Gerechtigkeit] in this world is not itself righteousness [Gerechtigkeit] before God. Earthly
freedom is still not true freedom, and life in this world is not eternal life.
Striving for the just ordering of this world is not the realization of Christ’s
kingdom on earth; it is not the new creation. Christ’s kingdom breaks into the
world by the gospel. The fellowship of believers is the new creation.
But God the Preserver commands us to work for the
preservation of the world up to the last Day. The world is, after all, still
his creation, despite its arrogance. Christ, after all, still died for this
world. In the course of the world’s passing away, it is still God’s will to
bring his creation [Schöpfung] to its
goal in the new creature [Kreatur].
The command of God the Redeemer and the command of God
the Preserver are not to be separated from each other. Not only the
evangelization of the world but also working for the just ordering of the world
is the action of hope and love and thus the worship service. But both actions
are related to each other in an irreversible manner. We are not to proclaim the
gospel in order thereby to preserve the world, but we need to work to preserve
the world so that many will be saved from the world through the gospel. For God
preserves the world in order to bring salvation through the gospel; he does not
save in order to preserve this world. Evangelization does not exist in service
to the just ordering of this world, but indeed the just ordering of this world
exists in service to evangelization. To fail to recognize this has again and
again the temptation of the church. It is also a temptation for the World
Council. So thus says the Lord: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words
will not pass away” (Mt. 24.35).
VI.
Will we have success with our actions of hope?
The front is today different from what it was in the
apostolic period. Heathenism is in decline. We face the post-Christian person. Such
individuals have heard of the gospel. They have experienced the liberation from
the bonds [Bindung] of this world and
from the lordship of gods and demons. They have heard of the passage, “Everything
is yours,… world, life, death, present, future” (1 Cor. 3.21f.). But they have torn
this freedom away from submission to Christ. They have usurped the lordship
over nature. They have themselves undertaken to create the eternal kingdom of
peace and no longer wait for Christ’s coming. This freedom that is gifted by
Christ and yet torn away from Christ hangs heavy today upon the nations,
destroys their religions, and creates the final cleavage in the opposition between
East and West on both sides. This freedom is a menacing threat to life, for
freedom without any commitment [Bindung]
leads to the use of violence, and the struggle for the rule of the world by
these free people leads to horrific annihilation. When looking back on both
world wars and focusing on the post-Christian and anti-Christian powers
surrounding them, and given the prospect of a third world war with atomic
weapons, many people are filled with fear and paralysis, and they allow
themselves to think that their actions appear pointless.
It is said to us, “When this begins to occur, look up and
raise your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Lk. 21.28). “When you
hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place” (Mk.
13.7). The tumult of this world is for the ones who hope the sure sign of Christ’s
coming. The world would not bluster so, if he were not the victor. The autumn
storms of this world are the signs of the coming spring. The shocking
devastations of this time are the labor pains of the new creation.
We ask once again:
Will our work have success?
The gospel travels through the nations of the world. But
at the same time our generation is witnessing oppressions and persecutions of
the churches to such an extent that the persecutions of Christians in the ancient
church could appear almost trivial by comparison. For the sake of the gospel,
many have been deprived, been taken prisoner, and were killed. In order to
preserve their lives many have denied the gospel and have fallen away from the
faith. Mission outposts have vanished and entire regions of the church no
longer have churches. Churches that were once mighty have collapsed and now
live in the catacombs of our time.
It is also true that “this must take place” (Mk. 13.7;
Rev. 1.1). The way of the church can be no other than the way of its Lord: through
suffering to glory! The judgment begins in the house of God (1 Pet. 4.17). God
shakes and sifts his church in persecution in order to test and purify it, in
order to separate the wheat from the chaff. But those who humble themselves under
the mighty hand of God and take up their own cross soon realize that it has
already long been borne by Christ. In their suffering, believers participate in
Christ. In their disparagement, imprisonment, and death, the crucified Christ
becomes visible and he demonstrates the power of his resurrection. They are his
most beloved children who are honored by God to be witnesses of Christ, not
merely through the songs of praise that come from their lips but also in the sacrifice
of their body. Their defeat is in truth their victory. It is not the powerful,
privileged church, the one acknowledged by the world, but rather the powerless,
suffering church that is the revelation of the glory of Christ. The church that
is dying with Christ is the triumphant church.
Will we see success from our actions? This is the
question of hopelessness.
We do not know what success we will see in this world
from our evangelization and our working for a just world order, but we do know
most definitely that our work “in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15.58).
Christian hope is independent of what our eyes can see before us, whether it be
successes or failures. It is not accidental that in the New Testament, talk of hope
is directly related to spiritual attacks and trials (Rom. 5.3ff.; Rom. 8.18ff.;
1 Pet. 1.3ff.). Christian hope is grounded solely on Christ. For this reason, it
can never be put to shame. Therefore, Christian hope expects always the best
from God and is unceasingly active in the struggle against the powers of
darkness: “If God is for us, who then can
be against us? He did not spare his own Son…. Will he not also bestow upon us
all things with him?” (Rom. 8.31ff.).
This is not the hope of the world, but the hope of the
church. To this hope the church has to summon the world.
VII.
Is this really the hope of all of us? Is our faith really
“the victory that has overcome the world” (1 Jn. 5.4)?
We are gathered here as separated churches. To be sure, the
historical divisions are only to a very small extent due to disputes over
eschatology. This observation, however, does not mean that the separated
churches really live in Christian hope, for where hope is alive, there the
existing differences and separations will be seen with new eyes and a deep
shame will result from the fact that we, through our disunity, contradict the
unity of the body of Christ and thus make it easy for the world to reject the
message about Christ as its sole hope. “Our being one in Christ and our
disunity as churches” is therefore rightly the theme of the First Section of
the Assembly and is at the same time basically the theme of all sections of
this Assembly.
If hope were really alive in all of us, then we would have
less fear in the presence of people than fear in the presence of God; then we would
have less concern for preserving the particularities of our church bodies and
more concern for how we stand in the presence of God. “For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5.10). A separation will then take
place that will be much deeper than all the divisions within Christendom, a
separation which is final. Then the verdict can be handed down against entire
church bodies: “Because you are lukewarm
and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3.16).
If this hope were really alive in all of us, then we
would know that not only the world but also the form of the church is passing
away. We would more clearly understand the provisional nature of our church activities,
of our orderings of the church, and even of our dogmatic formulations. The
church too will be transformed. In the new creation there will be “no temple,”
“for the Lord, the almighty God, and the Lamb are its temple (Rev. 21.22). Then
we will not only believe the word but we will see God.
If this hope were really alive in us, then we would
rejoice less in the untroubled existence of our church bodies, less in their
security and preservation, and rejoice more because the gospel is extended and
people are being saved through faith from the bonds of this world. “Only that
Christ is proclaimed! … In that I rejoice” (Phil. 1.18). And our greatest renown
would be the chains and sufferings of the brothers and sisters from all the church
bodies throughout the world.
If this hope were really alive in us, then we would not
stand gazing backwards, but rather we would hasten forwards toward the Lord. We
would not be so much in love with the history of our own church body, but
rather would be open to the working of Christ in the whole world. By focusing
on what lies ahead, the walls between the church bodies become transparent.
If this hope were really alive, then we would also be
able to understand more clearly the non-theological factors that divide the church
bodies; for those factors gained their importance only because the church made a
pact with the world and expected from it the security that only Christ can
give.
Let us consider: We
all come from Christ, from his death and his resurrection. We all are going
towards Christ, the one who will come as Judge and Savior of the world. We all
are encompassed by him. He is present in our midst as the one who has come and
the one who is coming.
Let us give him all the honor and put aside everything by
which we darken his glory in the presence of the world.
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