The question hereby raised, whether Christianity as a whole merely goes beyond reason or whether it is opposed to reason, may be answered in this way: Christianity, in the main, has been contrary to reason since the fall. It outrages all those whom the Holy Spirit has not enlightened to recognize that they need do nothing to earn salvation, nor should they share in any honor. Obviously, Christianity embraces facets that are not contrary to reason; but the basic essence of Christianity is always foolishness to human reason.
Walther, C.F.W.. Walther's Works: All Glory to God (p. 34). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
Walther, C.F.W.. Walther's Works: All Glory to God (p. 34). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
How often has God made grasshoppers His armies! An atheist in his blindness indeed insists that this speaks slanderously of God. But this is God’s greatest honor, that no mosquito in the universe can move without Him; for outside of God there is nothing that can say to Him: “You do your thing, I’ll do mine.” God says to him: “You are a zero as soon as I cease to operate in you and for you.” And this applies equally to the archangel as well as the smallest frog, yes, the tiniest mosquito, the tiniest mite and moth. Truly, this is a most blessed teaching! A person who has rightly comprehended it goes through the world in an entirely different manner. He sees the dear God everywhere with the eyes of faith. Part of a Christian’s makeup is that he does not walk through the world like a cow. A Christian, walking through a meadow, sees the hand of God everywhere—how He beautifully clothes the lovely flowers, how He places power into grain, so that man and beast are sustained by it.
Walther, C.F.W.. Walther's Works: All Glory to God (p. 99). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
Walther, C.F.W.. Walther's Works: All Glory to God (p. 99). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
Forwarded from Cheri
Therefore, the third, and indeed instrumental, cause of justification is faith, which makes that which was alien by acquisition, become proper by application.
29.This faith, therefore, is considered in two ways: first, absolutely, and in itself, as a certain virtue, habit, and quality; then, relatively, as it regards the promise, looking to Christ as its correlate and object. 30.In its first sense, the power of justification cannot be attributed to faith. In this respect, it is only the work of one commandment of the Decalogue, namely the first; whereas for the justification of man, the fulfillment of not just one but all commandments are required. 31.Furthermore, since it is imperfect when considered in itself, in this regard it rather needs the mercy of God to cover its imperfection than to merit the mercy of God. 32.Thirdly, because even if it were absolutely perfect, it would still be owed, as it is commanded by the law. However, what we are obligated to by debt cannot merit anything before God.[92] 33.Faith justifies insofar as it is considered relatively, or as it looks outside itself to Christ, embraces Him, and apprehends Him.
35.From this, it is clearly evident that faith in justification, as such, regards nothing in man, such that it does not even regard itself, but wholly turns man away from everything in him to Christ alone, as the sole and unique Redeemer of the human race. 36.Therefore, Paul also says that faith is imputed to us for righteousness.[93] Not on account of its own condition, quality, or merit, but on account of the dignity of the one it apprehends. Just as a ring is said to be worth hundreds of gold coins because of the gem it contains, not because the ring itself is worth so much on its own, but because of the gem, which is far nobler and most excellent.
Hunnius, Aegidius. Propositions on the Principal Articles of the Christian Religion: which in this Troubled Age of Ours are Drawn into Controversy (pp. 108-109). Smalkald Press. Kindle Edition.
29.This faith, therefore, is considered in two ways: first, absolutely, and in itself, as a certain virtue, habit, and quality; then, relatively, as it regards the promise, looking to Christ as its correlate and object. 30.In its first sense, the power of justification cannot be attributed to faith. In this respect, it is only the work of one commandment of the Decalogue, namely the first; whereas for the justification of man, the fulfillment of not just one but all commandments are required. 31.Furthermore, since it is imperfect when considered in itself, in this regard it rather needs the mercy of God to cover its imperfection than to merit the mercy of God. 32.Thirdly, because even if it were absolutely perfect, it would still be owed, as it is commanded by the law. However, what we are obligated to by debt cannot merit anything before God.[92] 33.Faith justifies insofar as it is considered relatively, or as it looks outside itself to Christ, embraces Him, and apprehends Him.
35.From this, it is clearly evident that faith in justification, as such, regards nothing in man, such that it does not even regard itself, but wholly turns man away from everything in him to Christ alone, as the sole and unique Redeemer of the human race. 36.Therefore, Paul also says that faith is imputed to us for righteousness.[93] Not on account of its own condition, quality, or merit, but on account of the dignity of the one it apprehends. Just as a ring is said to be worth hundreds of gold coins because of the gem it contains, not because the ring itself is worth so much on its own, but because of the gem, which is far nobler and most excellent.
Hunnius, Aegidius. Propositions on the Principal Articles of the Christian Religion: which in this Troubled Age of Ours are Drawn into Controversy (pp. 108-109). Smalkald Press. Kindle Edition.
"When faith begins, God does not forsake it; He lays the holy cross on our backs to strengthen us and to make faith powerful in us. The holy Gospel is a powerful Word. Therefore it cannot do its work without trials, and only he who tastes it is aware that it has such power. Where suffering and the cross are found, there the Gospel can show and exercise its power. It is a Word of life. Therefore it must exercise all its power in death. In the absence of dying and death it can do nothing, and no one can become aware that it has such power and is stronger than sin and death. Therefore the apostle says “to prove you”; that is, God inflicts no glowing fire or heat—cross and suffering, which make you burn—on you for any other purpose than “to prove you,” whether you also cling to His Word. Thus it is recorded in Wisd. of Sol. 10:12 of Jacob: “God sent him an arduous contest, so that he might know that godliness is more powerful than anything.” God lays a cross on all believers in order that they may taste and prove the power of God—the power which they have taken hold of through faith." —Martin Luther
Hymnody
Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding!
“Christ is near,” we hear it say.
“Cast away the works of darkness,
All you children of the day!” —
Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding (LSB 345:1)
Prayer of the Day (Dec 2)
Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come and help us by Your might, that the sins which weigh us down may be quickly lifted by Your grace and mercy; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L04)
—Concordia Publishing House. Treasury of Daily Prayer (Kindle Locations 29530-29544). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
Hymnody
Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding!
“Christ is near,” we hear it say.
“Cast away the works of darkness,
All you children of the day!” —
Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding (LSB 345:1)
Prayer of the Day (Dec 2)
Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come and help us by Your might, that the sins which weigh us down may be quickly lifted by Your grace and mercy; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L04)
—Concordia Publishing House. Treasury of Daily Prayer (Kindle Locations 29530-29544). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
In these last days of great distress
Grant us, dear Lord, true steadfastness
That we keep pure till life is spent
Your holy Word and Sacrament.
—Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide (LSB 585:2)
Concordia Publishing House. Treasury of Daily Prayer.
Grant us, dear Lord, true steadfastness
That we keep pure till life is spent
Your holy Word and Sacrament.
—Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide (LSB 585:2)
Concordia Publishing House. Treasury of Daily Prayer.
Kinists can't do missions because that would be a sin for caring for other people and nations.
May God give them repentance and knowledge of the Gospel so that they may be able to share it with other "inferior" or "less important" races.
—Admin
May God give them repentance and knowledge of the Gospel so that they may be able to share it with other "inferior" or "less important" races.
—Admin
Forwarded from Diet of Worms
QUIA SUBSCRIPTION = because
We subscribe to the Confessions because they agree with Scripture.
QUATENUS SUBSCRIPTION = as far as
We do not subscribe to the Confessions with reservations. When people subscribe to the Confessions as far as they agree with Scripture, they are insisting that Scripture does not have clarity and that you can never know and interpret the Scriptures.
Quia extends to all doctrinal matters. (Content does not extend to every application and illustration.)
We subscribe to the Confessions because they agree with Scripture.
QUATENUS SUBSCRIPTION = as far as
We do not subscribe to the Confessions with reservations. When people subscribe to the Confessions as far as they agree with Scripture, they are insisting that Scripture does not have clarity and that you can never know and interpret the Scriptures.
Quia extends to all doctrinal matters. (Content does not extend to every application and illustration.)
Forwarded from Diet of Worms
BrugConcord.pdf
45.5 KB
Why Bible-Believing Lutherans Subscribe to the Book of Concord
By John F. Brug
By John F. Brug
LimpertConfessional.pdf
709.8 KB
BEING A CONFESSIONAL LUTHERAN TODAY AND BEYOND
Diet of Worms
Photo
Should we invoke the saints in heaven in our prayers?
I think not and there's why ⬇️
When the disciples asked Jesus "how are we to pray?" our Lord said, "This, then, is how you should pray, "our Father, who art in Heaven..."
We therefore address only God in prayer, and we can address the Son and the Holy Spirit along with the Father because they are of one substance.
Now when many of the fathers wrote on the nature of the Our Father prayer they noted how all other prayer are elaborations or meditations on one of its petitions.
This most sublime and divine of all prayers should be our measuring stick for all other prayer.
We can affirm that the saints in heaven do indeed pray for us, but it is unwarranted to pray to them or to invoke them. We have no promise that they can hear us.
We have no promise and no revealed word on which to base this practice, therefore it cannot be done in faith which rests on revealed truth, and therefore it should be piously avoided. For whatever is not of faith is sin, Romans 14:23
This is not analogous to asking the saints on earth to pray for us, for here we have a divine word and promise for the practice and you ask them in a manner wherein you are certain that they will hear you.
Compare either calling or writing me to pray for you, would this be the same as kneeling in church next Sunday with folded hands saying, "Saint Michael [my first name] pray for me now and for ...." while I was in Denmark?
No, and it is a false equivocation to equate these two different things.
Paint by the Danish Lutheran Carl Bloch, "Bjergprædikenen"
I think not and there's why ⬇️
When the disciples asked Jesus "how are we to pray?" our Lord said, "This, then, is how you should pray, "our Father, who art in Heaven..."
We therefore address only God in prayer, and we can address the Son and the Holy Spirit along with the Father because they are of one substance.
Now when many of the fathers wrote on the nature of the Our Father prayer they noted how all other prayer are elaborations or meditations on one of its petitions.
This most sublime and divine of all prayers should be our measuring stick for all other prayer.
We can affirm that the saints in heaven do indeed pray for us, but it is unwarranted to pray to them or to invoke them. We have no promise that they can hear us.
We have no promise and no revealed word on which to base this practice, therefore it cannot be done in faith which rests on revealed truth, and therefore it should be piously avoided. For whatever is not of faith is sin, Romans 14:23
This is not analogous to asking the saints on earth to pray for us, for here we have a divine word and promise for the practice and you ask them in a manner wherein you are certain that they will hear you.
Compare either calling or writing me to pray for you, would this be the same as kneeling in church next Sunday with folded hands saying, "Saint Michael [my first name] pray for me now and for ...." while I was in Denmark?
No, and it is a false equivocation to equate these two different things.
Paint by the Danish Lutheran Carl Bloch, "Bjergprædikenen"