A century ago, the readers of the Gemeindeblatt, the first version of Forward in Christ, received the following news, “A heavy blow has struck our synod. After a short illness, it has pleased the Lord of life and death to call our dear, longtime Professor, Dr. A. Hoenecke, from time into eternity.” Of course, it was in German. At the time we were still a German-speaking church body.

For more than 40 years, Dr. Hoenecke was our synod’s spiritual leader. When the synod was only 13 years old and still drifting doctrinally, the Lord of the church sent us a theologian. At the time he was only 28 years old, but through his work our synod found its way to biblical, confessional Lutheranism.

God makes Hoenecke a Christian theologian

Adolf Hoenecke was born on Feb. 25, 1835, about 60 miles southwest of Berlin, Germany. Neither his family nor his country was very religious. After finishing high school, he had absolutely no idea what he wanted to do. But a chance meeting changed his life and set in motion events that would bring great blessing to our synod. Hoenecke was a frail young man. While at the home of a friend, the music director from his school pointed to a healthy-looking pastor and said, “Look Adolf! Become a pastor and you will have it good.” That was enough for Hoenecke. He enrolled at the University of Halle to study theology.

While at Halle, the young Hoenecke met Dr. August Tholuck. Dr. Tholuck did many things for his young student. The most important, however, was that he told Hoenecke about his Savior Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit used the gospel witness of this professor to make Hoenecke a Christian.

Other things during these college years brought Hoenecke to our synod. One was his extreme poverty. Hoenecke had to pay for his own education. He did it by participating in academic competitions to win meals and by taking charity from Dr. Tholuck. After finishing his undergraduate studies, Tholuck wanted Hoenecke to become a university professor. That, however, required further education and money! Adolf couldn’t bring himself to do it. Three years of begging had been enough. 

But training doesn’t only come from university study. Hoenecke needed more training in confessional Lutheranism. Since the Prussian state church had more pastors than it needed, Hoenecke moved to Switzerland where he became a private tutor. There Hoenecke had time to immerse himself in a continued study of Holy Scripture and Lutheran doctrine. As he studied on his own, the Holy Spirit turned Hoenecke into a university-trained, confessional Lutheran theologian, who knew the biblical languages, Latin, and the dogmaticians (teachers of doctrine).

God brings Hoenecke to America