When I come
to people like Hengstenberg, I think of how many lives were lived and battles
fought by people who were unable to see the outcome. All of us are to some
degree 'stuck' in our moment of time, incapable of knowing what the years and
decades hold after we are gone. Some historical characters have a sense of
finality to their lives, some notion of victory or defeat, even some kind of
conclusion. But most of us don't. Maybe we do when it comes to our limited
individual spheres... did I 'make it' in life or did I fail, that sort of
thing. But as far as the struggles of life, within the realm of ideas, few of
us go to the grave knowing how the chapter ends.
As Christians
we see the big picture, and we know how it all will ultimately end, but none of
us know just when that will be. In the meantime we labour, not to preserve nations
or even cultures but to preserve and perpetuate the Kingdom of God on Earth,
the Church of Jesus Christ. If we labour for anything else we're either failing
to properly redeem the time and we even run the risk of being unfaithful.
I have often
thought of the people who died in 2001, but before September 11. People like
the spy novelist Ludlum.... how he would have been inspired by those events!...
Timothy McVeigh, what would he have thought?...
or RJ Rushdoony, how would he have filtered those events into his
peculiar theological understanding of American history?
I think of
people who died in 1939 but before September, or people who died just before
December 1941. Of course history isn't comprised of these single day events.
There are the years of background leading up to them. It's interesting to think
how we all live during these periods and yet do we realize it? Some of us do,
to some degree, but none of us can take it all in.
Obviously we
all must deal with the realities of the time in which we live and do the best
we can. Part of the problem is identifying the right things to stand for, the
right battles to fight. As Christians we realize the battle of ideas is our
realm, and of more importance and far reaching than the battles of armies and
weapons that shed blood.
Hengstenberg
lived in a very interesting time. The world was changing. The 20th
century world changed even more in terms of geo-politics and technology. But
sometimes I wonder if we properly appreciate the profundity of the change and
upheaval taking place in the 19th century? The West was finishing
its conquest of the globe, great strides were being made in the realms of
industry and yet for all the 'progress' there was something dreadfully wrong.
There was something immoral about it all and not a few commentators realized
it. There was something twisted about colonialism. Maybe some were unable to
put a finger on just what the problem was? Industrialization had deep and very
disturbing social consequences and there were many ideas floating about... new
ways of thinking about life and man's place in the world. Nationalism was
taking on a new character and other social and economic solutions were being
offered which would contribute to the dismemberment and collapse of the old
regimes in the 20th century. In fact we cannot properly understand
the events of 1914, 1917, 1933, 1941 or 1945 apart from these ideas. All of the
tremendous events that took place during those calendar years were rooted in
the changes taking place in the 19th century.
In the midst
of all this change, Hengstenberg lived his life and yet interestingly he
devoted himself to combating the growing force of theological liberalism and
seemingly made it his life's work to defend the integrity of the Biblical Text.
The question must have seemed detached and obscure, even to people of his era.
In terms of
worldly wisdom, we might say he lost the battle. But we're not to think as the
world does. He stood for the truth of the text and because of people like him,
some forms of Biblical Christianity survived on the continent of Europe. He's
an inspiration for people of our generation.
What strikes
me is that even though his life must have seemed like a series of defeats, he
continued on. Many terrible things were to happen in the years following his
death, both for Europe and for the Church.
He could
have been easily distracted and pulled into labouring for this or that fight.
But he chose the right battle. Somehow in the midst of the chaos of the 19th
century and the maelstrom of ideas and struggles he rightly identified the most
important issue, the battle which had to be fought and far exceeded any other
concern. He could have even been a partisan for this or that school of theology
or a certain ecclesiastical tradition. He was a devoted Lutheran to be sure,
but the issue he recognized as essential was the text of Scripture. Without the
Bible, we have nothing left at all. Those that cry 'Christ' and dismiss Bible
and doctrine don't realize the error and folly of what they are saying. The
Christ they would defend is a figment of their imagination, a creation in their
own image and to their own liking. If you want to know Christ then hear the
words of the Apostles who knew Him and were promised the guiding hand of the
Spirit and given a Divine commission. Their words live on in the form of a
preserved text.
The text if
recognized as Divinely Inspired and Infallible is worth fighting for.