acknowledge that Jesus had a human father as well as a human
mother, that would simply teach us what we are confessing and believing
even now: Jesus is not alone true God, but likewise true man. His
divinity would not be affected thereby." (_L. u. W._ 1909, 228.) In 1918
the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_ recommended Dr. James Denney's
book, _The Atonement and the Modern Mind_, in which Denney practically
rejects the authority of the Scriptures and departs from the Christian
doctrine of satisfaction made by Christ. (_L. u. W._ 1918, 482.) In the
_Lutheran Church Work and Observer_, April 4, 1918, Rev. W.R. Goff
maintained: "The writer cannot find one passage in Scripture that
definitely and positively asserts a visible return of the Lord." (_L. u.
W._ 1918, 423.)

99. A Second Edition of Quitman.--For quite a number of years Dr. E.H.
Delk, a prominent member of the General Synod, has been an ardent
advocate of modern rationalism and evolutionism. He denies the verbal
inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, rejects the Lutheran doctrine of
the union of the divine and human natures in Christ, attacks the dogma
that the death of Christ was a ransom and a substitutional sacrifice for
the sins of the world, corrupts every Christian doctrine, and demands
that all of them be restated in order to bring them into harmony with
modern evolutionistic science and philosophy. "The Bible and our
Confession do not ask man to throw away his reason in the reception of
truth and in the _judgment_ of the theological problems," Delk declared
in 1903. (_L. u. W._ 1903, 185.) A number of years ago, Dr. Delk was
permitted to present his radical views to the students of Gettysburg
Seminary; and the _Lutheran Quarterly_ published the lecture without a
word of criticism. At Atchison, 1913, when resolutions were offered
rejecting the doctrines of Delk, the General Synod refused to take
definite action. The _Lutheran Observer_ boasted that Synod was not
ready to sacrifice liberty of thought and speech. (_L. u. W._ 1901, 370;
1902, 136; 1903, 185; 1913, 145; 1916, 67.) In 1916 the _Lutheran Church
Work and Observer_, the official organ of the General Synod, opened its
columns to Delk and his theology. In 1917 Delk continued his propaganda
by publishing his views in a booklet, _The Need of a Restatement of
Theology_. In 1918 the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_ endorsed and
advertised the book. Identifying himself with some of the views of
mo