Faith

Nurnberg

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In 1945 several men fled to Christ in the face of the enormity of their sin. Major Henry Gerecke, a Lutheran army chaplain had been appointed to the accused at Nuremberg. His work was recorded by F T Grossmith in his book The Cross and the Swastika.

When Gerecke prepared the Lord’s table, the guards walked out. He reported it in this way: ‘I shall never forget the sight of those three big men kneeling, asking that their sins be forgiven. So convincing was their bearing that the guards said to me, “Chaplain, you’ll not need us. This is holy business.” And they walked out.’ The Cross and the Swastika by F.T. Grossmith is well worth the read – you might need a box of tissues. Some sound recordings are available. There is also a BBC Radio four production, Nuremberg: The Trial of the Nazi War Criminals, which references the work of the chaplain but looks at the trial from a different perspective.

Sound recordings of Gerecke’s work are [temporarily] available here:

  1. Chaplain Corps 5 min: Gerecke introduces himself and provides the background to his appointment
  2. The Colonel 6 min: The work of finding the lost sheep commences
  3. Ribbentrop 4 min: Religion turns to grace
  4. Hess 5 min: Goering takes Gerecke’s part
  5. Raeder 4 min: The Lutheran becomes a Methodist
  6. Von Schirach 4 min: If any one leads one of these little one’s astray…
  7. Dr Frick 6 min: There is much work for a chaplain who meets the families and the lost sheep
  8. Goering 3 min: The face of religion without the power
  9. Death March 3 min: 16 October 1945 I shall see you again
  10. Civic Duty 3 min: Political reflections
  11. The Executed 4 min: Application!

Fear men?

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Having come across Perkins in relation to the Creed, Coco noticed the following words:

Lastly, whereas wee haue learned that the soule of man is immortall, wee are hereby taught to take more care for the soule, then for the bodie. For it can not be extinguished. When it is condemned, euen then it is alwaies in dying, and can neuer die. But, alas, in this point the case is flat contrarie in the worlde: for men will labour all their life long to get for the bodie, but for the soule they care little or nothing at all, chuse it whether it sinke or swimme, goe to heauen or to hell, they looke not to it. This doth appeare to be true, by the practise and behaui|our of men on the Lordes day: for if the nomber of those which come to heare Gods worde, were compared with those which runne about their worldly wealth and pleasure, I feare me the better sort would be found to be but a little handfull to a huge heape, or as a droppe to the Ocean sea, in respect of the other. But wilt thou goe an hundred myle for the encrease of thy wealth, and delight of thy bodie? then think it not much to go ten thousand miles (if neede were) to take any paines for the good of thy soule, and to get foode for the same.

How right he was. David declared in Psalm 68:11 The Lord gave the word. Great was the company of those who proclaimed it. The message that they had to bring was not quite the message that the Lord brought in the following words, but there is much similarity in it for those who see: Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10:27-31jesus should die?

There are many who hear the word, many who proclaim it, but do many come to hear it? It is as true today as it was in 1595 that men care more for their bodies than their souls. Indeed they live as if they have no soul, as so many false and misguided teachers suggest, until one dies and then they speak as if the dead one, who they believed had no soul but only a body yet still lives in some mysterious way.

Many pass by with no thought for their souls, no thought of God, no thought of eternity, no thought to ask why did Jesus die?

All ye that pass by, to Jesus draw nigh:
To you is it nothing that Jesus should die?
Your ransom and peace, your surety he is:
Come, see if there ever was sorrow like his.
Charles Wesley 1707-88

He descended into hell

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It was asked the question of one of you, dear readers, what He descended into hell means.

The words he descended into hell found in the Apostle’s Creed as we read it in the present day are the source of a number of controversies none of which strike at the heart of our evangelical faith, but which exercise the minds of believers in some helpful and in some unhelpful ways. As we may expect concerning such an ancient and important text as the Apostle’s Creed it is unlikely that we can say anything new about it, and what may be said has already been said, probably several times over by many scholars over the past three half millennia and before. The standard comprehensive work, some would perhaps describe it as exhaustive, and it is certainly exhausting where even the footnotes themselves have footnotes, was produced by John Pearson DD (28 February 1613–16 July 1686) a Lord Bishop of Chester, who prepared an exposition of the creed at the insistence of his parishioners at Eastcheap in the City of London. The exposition1 was published in 1659 before he became a bishop. During the Civil War he served on the Royalist side and argued against the Puritans, but we shall not hold that against him.

I have compared Pearson’s exposition with that of William Perkins (1558–1602)2 , which was published in 1595 whilst he was a lecturer at St. Andrew’s Church in Cambridge. He was a well respected man of God who, though he conformed to Elizabeth’s settlement, continued to strive for further reform of the Church of England. One of his more famous works would be The arte of prophesy by which was meant at the time how to read, interpret and preach the Word of God accurately. It is an art which is vital to all who would dare to enter the pulpit still. I do not consider in detail here Perkins’s work.

Pearson may have had regard to Perkins’s writing for they agree in regard to the understandings of the clause which they reject. And they both reach the same conclusion, though expressed slightly differently, that the words descended into hell are a reference to the grave holding him after his burial for the three days before his resurrection.

My summary of Pearson’s work may be found here, together with a brief critique of his conclusion and comparison with Perkins3, and the sections which deal with the article he descended into hell. The full text of both Perkins’s and Pearson’s work may be found using the links in the footnotes.

You may need to log into Google or GoogleDrive to access the documents.
  1. There have been many editions of the exposition among which we have:
    Rev. E. Burton, DD Regius Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church. Oxford; Clarendon Press, 1877.
    https://anglicanhistory.org/pearson/creed/
    Revised by the Rev. W. S. Dobson, A.M., editor of the Attic Greek Orators and Sophists, &c New York;D. Appleton & Company, 200 Broadway, Philadelphia/George S. Appleton, 164 Chestnut St. London 1850
    https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/items/expositionofcred00pearuoft/expositionofcred00pearuoft.pdf
    And the copy which I possess: Edward Walford MA, Balliol College, Oxford; George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden 1876

    There are minor discrepancies between the editions, which do not detract from the value of them but which may cause scholars and academics to raise their eyebrows to question whether the Latin word order, the Greek or Hebrew pointing and orthography is correct but the blame for many of these may lie not with the editors but the typesetters who being skilled in the production of excellent English texts for the nineteenth century may have applied those skills to inadvertently modify a seventeenth century text
    ↩︎
  2. An earlier and other important exposition of the creed was prepared by William Perkins a Puritan who lived during the reign of Elizabeth of England.
    An exposition of the Symbole or Creed of the Apostles according to the tenour of the Scriptures, and the consent of orthodoxe Fathers of the Church. By William Perkins. Perkins, William, 1558-1602
    Printed by Iohn Legatt, printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge. 1595. And are to be solde [by R. Bankworth] at the signe of the Sunne in Pauls Church-yard in London
    https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A09411.0001.001/1:5?rgn=div1;view=fulltext#backDLPS789
    ↩︎
  3. Perkins mentions a possible understanding of the words he descended into hell with the following comment:
    This exposition is good and true, and whosoeuer will may receiue it. But yet neuerthelesse it seemes not so fitly to agree with the order of the former articles.
    The suggestion is that the former wordes, was crucified, deade and buried, doe con∣taine (say they) the outward sufferings of Christ: nowe because he suffered not onely outwardly in bodie, but also inwardly in soule, therefore these words, he descended into hell, doe set forth vnto vs his inwarde sufferings in soule, when he felt vpon the crosse the ful wrath of God vpō him.
    This is a most interesting proposition and begins to fall into the realms of the mystery of the incarnation. David in Psalm 40 says Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me, which the Apostle tells us in Hebrews are the words of our Lord. Shortly afterwards in Psalm 40 David says For innumerable evils have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me.
    These also are the words of our Lord. How are we to understand them?
    James Allen of Dowlais provides a helpful exposition of them here. I commend it to you.
    ↩︎

Xmas treats?

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Whilst, in the words from the article, LICC is not ‘automatically aligned with [Coco’s] opinions1‘ this is an interesting article from the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity.

Not on our side: Christmas and the danger of co-opting Jesus

Discernment is required when reading articles from LICC, though Coco must be quick to remind himself that they are not of the same nature as the Parson’s Egg.

This article references a right-wing attempt at co-option, which is perhaps easier to identify than a left-wing one where social justice, love, equality and brotherhood have a higher place on the agenda, and so appeals more easily to the hearts of the followers of Jesus, but a careful review of both the right- and left-wing, even the centrist, agendæ[sic.] will reveal that they are all opposed to the teaching of our Lord, not recognising, the perhaps disguising the lack of recognition in a pretence by referencing his words but out of their context, his authority over men.

Read it carefully, and having done so, compare all the vain attempts of men to promote a different message than the one that Jesus brought that the Son of Man must be handed over to the authorities, be crucified for our sins, and be raised from the dead on the third day, with the Word of God once and for all delivered to us.

The Lord be with you, especially if you, as many do, take a peculiar regard2 to the days at this particular time of the year in remembrance of his coming as a man into this world.

  1. Coco’s opinions are referenced in the footer of this web-page. ↩︎
  2. One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. Romans 14:5-6 ↩︎

Gnats and camels

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It was an amusing tale in the published by the BBC Council’s clean-up warning for St George’s crosses but also the co-incidence with an article published by the LICC that prompted Coco. We do so easily see the gnat, but fail to notice that there is a camel in our beaker of notoriously middle-class or upwardly-mobile freshly ground and brewed, steamed, iced, skinny, but extra hot, caramel latté (Coco’s judgement on that drink: ☹).

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A song for August 2025

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The dew this evening fell
To refresh the ground again.
We thought it would be well
And remembered then the pain.
The pain of leaving home,
Of walking in a strange place,
But freedom then to roam
Gave to pain a new brand face.

Each day we walk uncertainly,
Not knowing of the end,
But the God of grace and mercy
Knows well how to defend.
He saw the world before it was
And knew how it would be.
And yet he made it all because
Of love for you and me.

The pain that we all feel
For the wrongs that we have done
Though grievous to his soul
Yet for it he would atone.
There on the Roman cross
His blood for the world was shed.
It was for him no loss –
Let us now by him be led!

Another year has passed away,
Another now employ.
May you know joy and peace alway
In him without alloy.

© Australian Gifts Co

The sons of God

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One writer comments that in Genesis 6:1–4, the reader encounters one of the most challenging passages in all of Scripture to interpret. In this article Coco seeks to challenge that thesis by pleading that a plain reading of the text is all that is required.

There are several articles available on the internet explaining who the sons of God are of whom Moses makes mention in Genesis 6. Two of these may be found here:

https://equip.sbts.edu/article/who-are-the-sons-of-god-daughters-of-man-and-nephilim
Who Are the Sons of God, Daughters of Man, and Nephilim? By Mitchell L. Chase

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Augsburg

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Poker anyone

As one who only knows one thing about poker, that it was the second thing a cowboy did after he had entered the bar, I have heard it said that it is quite unlike any other card game. In any other game, if you don’t know how to play, you can still play. In poker, if you don’t know how to play, don’t.

That was the situation in Augsburg. It has been repeated many times since in different contexts, perhaps famously when one nation left an economic bloc it placed its cards face up on the table, and secondly more recently when a new president stretched out his arm to an old enemy – but that game is not yet over we must wait to see what the outcome is.

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The darkness – Psalm 88

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As we approach the time of year which is called Easter or Passover by those who observe such things Coco thought to offer a few words on Psalm 88, as we number it, which speaks eloquently, though darkly, about the things which took place at that time. First of all read the psalm itself:

A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician. Set to Mahalath Leannoth (The suffering of affliction). A Contemplation (maskil) of Heman the Ezrahite.

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