November 2018 – What Does This Mean?

Friedrich Wyneken Returns to Fort Wayne

Friedrich Wyneken continued to travel north along the Michigan Road. At Logansport, he turned east on the Wabash-Erie Canal, passing through Peru and Huntington, He returned to Fort Wayne on the 16th of November 1838 and preached at that place on the 18th of November. After a six week journey, traversing the northern third of Indiana and a portion of South Central Michigan, Wyneken found a letter from the Executive Committee of the Mission Society awaiting him at Fort Wayne.

The epistle gave the missionary permission to accept the call of Jesse Hoover’s congregations, but only on the condition that he remain a missionary as well. His recent experiences made it quite evident that no one man could do justice to both calls. He dashed off a letter to Executive Committee, giving a brief report of his labors and requesting resident pastors for Lima, for the Elkhart area, for Bremen on the Yellow River and the Lafayette region. None were available.

Wyneken suggested that perhaps preachers might be found at the fall meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium or in the meeting of the General Synod. He recommended that such men also be able to work in English. In this epistle, Wyneken also asked to be released from their service as a missionary. He suggested that his former shipmate, C. Wolf, be called to succeed him as survey missionary. He included a promise to visit settlements within a sixty mile radius of Fort Wayne, as time and obligations permitted. Wolf declined the call and another candidate, Emmanuel Frey, was prevented from serving by illness.

Wyneken did not remain idle while he waited for a dismissal from missionary service. He began his ministry in Fort Wayne and Adams County, preached to a small settlement near Auburn, Indiana, on the Cedar Creek, along what was to become the Lima Pike Road. On the third of December, he set out for the Elkhart area, but found his horse too lame to make the journey. So he spent Advent and Christmas in the Fort Wayne area.

The Night Ride of Martin Luther

One year after Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses, Martin Luther settled back into his quarters at the Black Cloister in Wittenberg. The past two weeks had been filled with anxiety and much uncertainty. While far from settled, Luther was temporarily safe under the protection of his prince.

On October 14, the interview of Luther with Cardinal Cajetan had clarified matters, but solved nothing. The Cardinal had underestimated Luther’s knowledge and skill. Rather than finding something Luther could recant of, Cajetan found a scholar looking to be convinced he was wrong and willing to accept only the authority of Scripture. Rather than finding a fellow scholar willing to dialogue with him and bring matters to a resolution, Luther had found a bishop insisting on unconditional obedience and willing to threaten punishment to achieve compliance. True to his word, the Cardinal Legate intended to honor his safe conduct. Yet neither the Saxon counselors nor Luther and his superior Staupitz trusted him. After all, 100 years earlier, an emperor did not feel compelled to keep his word to a heretic and burned Jan Hus at the stake.

To protect both the Augustinian Order and Luther, Staupitz released Luther from his monastic vows. Luther’s mentor had tried to raise money to finance the monk a possible escape to France, but was unable to. So Luther’s former monastic brothers quietly left Augsburg. Luther formally appealed from the Cardinal to the Pope to buy some time. Luther wrote Cajetan to see if promising to stay silent about the disputed matters would resolve things. After waiting a few days to see if Cajetan would reply, Luther and his friends concluded it was too risky for him to stay in Augsburg.

At night on October 20, Luther’s friends opened an obscure gate in the city wall and he quietly slipped out of Augsburg. Riding on a horse supplied by friends, he galloped non-stop to Monheim. He reached Nuremberg on the 22nd, where friends helped him make the rest of the journey home. On October 31, he was back in Electoral Saxony. Relieved, yet not secure, he returned to his duties while beginning to make plans for a sudden escape should Wittenberg prove to be unsafe for him to stay — for his sake or for his protector.

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Who Should Be Baptized?	128
The Church has Always Baptized Infants	122
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Move to Indiana and Search for German Protestants	104
You’re No Angel: Things Angels are Not	100
Sunday School #4: Jonah and the Unforgivable	99
Sabbath as the Day of Salvation	97
One God in Three Persons	97
Friedrich Wyneken in Indiana	97
Everybody’s Good at Heart? Right?	95
The Four Ways of Interpreting Scripture	92
Rule #1 for Reading the Bible	90
Children are Sinners, Too	87
Worship is About God’s Gifts to You	86
The Season of Lent	85
Half Time in the Church Year	85
Send us a Faithful Shepherd	83
Pastor Wyneken’s Lima, Ohio Ministry	82

Month: November 2018

Top Twenty-Five Posts

Friedrich Wyneken Returns to Fort Wayne

The Night Ride of Martin Luther