May 7th - C.F.W. Walther, Pastor and Theologian

Walther on the Office of the Ministry:

"O, glorious office! No matter how sick a person may be in his soul, the Gospel can heal him. No matter how deeply ca person has fallen into the corruption of sin, the Gospel can pull him out. No matter how troubled, frightened, and afflicted a person may be, the Gospel can comfort him. Whatever the condition in which a person finds himself, even if he is convinced that he must perish because of it, the preachers can confidently oppose him, saying: 'No, as certainly as God lives, He does not want the death of any sinner. You shall not perish; instead, you shall be saved. Turn to Jesus, who can evermore save all who come to God through Him.' And if one who lies near death calls out: 'God, what have I done? Woe to me! Now it is too late! I am lost!' the preachers should call to him: 'No, no, it is not too late! Commit your departing soul to Jesus. You too shall still be with Him in paradise today.' O, glorious, high office, too high for the angels! May we always hold it in high regard, not looking at the person who bears it and despising his weakness, but looking instead at the Institutor of this office and His exuberant goodness. Let us turn to Him in faith so we can experience the blessings of which the preachers have spoken and, through them, be gathered together one day into the barns of heaven as a completely ripe sheaf."

-C.F.W. Walther
from The Treasury of Daily Prayer, pg 212

Some of the Best of Krauth

As a fun exercise, I went over to Pastor Weedon's blog and typed "Krauth" in the search box. Now, all in one place ladies and gentlemen, here are some of the highlights from the quotes Pr. Weedon has posted:

"She [the Church] should lead men, not to the least faith, the least holiness which makes salvation possible, but to the very highest - she should not encourage the religion whose root is a selfish fear of hell, a selfish craving for heaven, but she should plant that religion to which pure truth is dear for its own sake, which longs for the fullest illumination, which desires not the easy road, but the sure one." -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 191

"It is not charity to bear with others because the differences between us are trifling; it is charity to bear with them although the differences are great. Charity does not cover error; because error is the daughter of sin, and charity is the daughter of God. Charity covers errorists so far as she may without palliating their errors, for the errorist, as a man, is God's child." -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 143

"A Church which contends for nothing has either lost the truth, or has ceased to love it." -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 1147

"The sin is really in the condition of the will. The sin done is but phenomenal to the real sin." -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 453

"It is vastly more important, then, to know what the Reformation retained than what it overthrew; for the overthrow of error, though often an indispensable prerequisite to the establishment of truth, is not truth itself; it may clear the foundation, simply to substitute one error for another, perhaps a greater for a less." -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 202

"The private opinions of individuals, however influential, can in no sense establish or remove one word of the Creed of the Church. Any man who, on any pretense, gives ecclesiastical authority to private opinions, is robbing the Church of her freedom. She is to be held responsible for no doctrines which she has not officially declared to be her own." -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 265

"It is a great mistake to suppose that our Evangelical Protestant Church is bound by consistency to hold a view simply because Luther held it. Her faith is not brought to the touchstone of Luther's private opinion, but his private opinion is to be tested by her confessed faith, when the question is, What is genuinely Lutheran?" -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 265

"Man offers to God; this is sacrifice. God gives back to man; this is sacrament. The oblation, or thing offered, supplies both sacrifice and sacrament, but with this difference, that under the Old Dispensation, God received part and man received part; under the New, God receives all and gives back all: Jesus Christ, in His own divine person, makes that complete which was narrowed under the Old Covenant by the necessarily limitations of mere matter." -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 591

"Rights, in themselves, give nothing, and cannot change the nature of things. The right to gather, gathers nothing; and if, under this right, the man gathers wood, hay, stubble, neither the right nor its exercise makes them into gold, silver, and precious stones. The Church will not put any violence upon him who chooses to gather what will not endure the fire; but she will not accept them as jewels, nor permit her children to be cheated by them. The right of private judgment and the right of Church discipline are co-ordinate and harmonious rights, essential to the prevention and abuse of the other. To uphold either intelligently is to uphold both. In maintaining, therefore, as Protestants, the right and duty of men, in the exercise of private judgment, to form their own convictions, unfettered by civil penalties in the State, or by inquisitorial powers in the Church, we maintain, also, the right and duty of the Church to shield herself from corruption in doctrine by setting forth the truth in Confession, by faithfully combating heresy, by personal warning to those that err, and, finally, with the contumacious, by rejecting them from her communion, till, through grace, they are led to see and renounce the falsehood, for which they claimed the name of truth." -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 175

"Death is so tenaciously allied to sin that only God can separate them." -- C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 411

"God's own appointments limit us, but do not limit Him." -- C.P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 431

"There is no power in man, in his reason or in his will, none in education, none in the whole store of the visible, or the intellectual, or moral world, which can repair this fatal defect [having no true love, faith, or fear of God], and render him God's reverent, loving, and trusting child." -- Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 390

"A regenerate man is always justified, a justified man is always regenerated; and unless a man be both, he is neither." -- Krauth, The Conservation Reformation, p. 419

"We do not interpret God's word by the Creed, neither do we interpret the Creed by God's Word, but interpreting both independently, by the laws of language, and finding that they teach one and the same truth, we heartily acknowledge the Confession as a true exhibition of the faith of the Rule - a true witness to the one, pure, and unchanging faith of the Christian Church, and freely make it our own Confession, as truly as if it had been now first uttered by our lips, or had first gone forth from our hands." -- Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 169

"The faith of the Church now is identical with what it was in the Apostolic time, but the relation of identity does not preclude growth - it only excludes changes of identity. That faith must always be its essential self - whether as a babe receiving milk, or as a man enjoying strong meat. In a word, the advances are wrought, not by change in the Church's faith, but by the perpetual activity of that faith, a faith which because it is incapable of change itself, assimilates more and more to it the consciousness of the Church, her system of doctrine, her language, and her life." -- Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 270

"The mightiest weapon which the Reformation employed against Rome was, not Rome's errors, but Rome's truths. It professed to make no new discoveries, to find no unheard-of interpretations but taking the Scriptures in that very sense to which the greatest of her writers had assented, uncovering the law and the gospel of God which she retained, applying them as her most distinguished and most honored teachers had applied them, though she made them of none effect by her traditions, the Reformation took into its heart the life-stream of sixteen centuries, and came forth in the stature and strength of a Christianity, grown from infancy in the primitive ages, to the ripened manhood of that maturer period. There was no fear of truth, simply because Rome held it, and no disposition to embrace error, because it might be employed with advantage to Rome's injury.... They allowed no authority but the Word of God, but they listened respectfully to the witness of believers of all time." --Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 203

Great Krauth Quote

"It is a curious fact in denominational history, that as, an ordinary rule, the more large, catholic, and churchly the title of a sect, the smaller, narrower, and more sectarian is the body that bears it."
-Charles Porterfield Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, pg 115

Rhetorical Question: What sounds larger and more catholic and churchly than the titles flaunted by the "non-denominational" sects?

Oh Yeah!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Making a rare appearance here in Iraq... give it up for... ...Martin Chemnitz!

You will note that I am two books short since the two volumes of "Loci Theologici" are on pre-order. It's okay. I'm sure they will get here by the time I finish these six.

CPH still has this great set on sale right here. There are much worse ways to spend $250! You can always buy them one at a time... but who has that kind of patience?!?

Remember kids: solid theology is for everybody!

Good Book on Vocation

Luther on Vocation
by Bustaf Wingren, translated by Carl C. Rasmussen
Wipf and Stock Publishers

I have purchased this book and have found it to be a very useful work on the topic of vocation. It contains a very clear and exhaustive summary of Dr. Luther's thoughts and teachings on the subject. (Pr. Hall will be pleased at all the footnotes.) Laymen who are interested in this topic should check this one out. It is one of the better summaries on vocation that I have found.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

“Even while man contends on earth with a specific outer sin which is hard for him to master, that sin is forgiven in heaven, before God. The battle lies outside of the conscience and leaves faith undisturbed, since it rests secure in God’s promise. Sin is resisted in such a way that man is not cast into despair; the outcome is certain, through God’s word about the eternal life after death. If a man cannot believe that the sin with which he struggles is forgiven, the law has risen up in the conscience (that is, in heaven) and faith gives way to works before God. Then eternal life does not depend on God’s promise but on man’s progress in the battle against his sin. That is desperation.”

“This desperation increases the earnestness of the battle against sin, and prepares man to see the great miracle in the gospel when at length it comes back and makes the conscience free and calm. God wills the agony of the Christian which enters into the crucifixion of the old man, for crucifixion is fellowship with Christ, and Christ endured the agony of despair on the cross. In his earlier writings Luther exhorts us to seek the cross and hardships. In his Treatise on Good Works, in 1520, Luther still divides the death of the old man into two parts: that which we bring upon ourselves and that which we are subject by reason of the connection our lives have with the lives of others. This is a remnant of Luther’s pre-Reformation thought. We miss the attack on a self-chosen and self-imposed cross found in his later and more detailed expositions of the Christian’s cross. The fanatics excelled at putting on a furrowed countenance. With Luther’s perception of this new monastic spirit in evangelical circles came the end of his commendation of self-chosen crosses. The cross is not to be chosen by us; it is laid upon us by God, i.e. the cross comes to us uninvoked in our vocation.” -Luther on Vocation, Pages 52-53



You can purchase this book here.

-----------------------------------------------------

Excerpt and cover image used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Wipf and Stock Publishers
http://wipfandstock.com/
199 West 8th Avenue, Suite 3
Eugene, Oregon 97401

Luther on Vocation By Wingren, Gustaf
Copyright (c) 1957 by Wingren, Gustaf
ISBN: 1-59244-561-6
Publication Date: 2/19/2004
Previously published by Muhlenburg Press, 1957

Our Invincible Sins and Our Merciful Reliever

"Who gave Himself for our sins..." [Galatians 1:4]

"...Again by this sentence, it is declared that our sins are so great, so infinite and invincible, that it is impossible for the whole world to satisfy for one of them. And surely the greatness of the ransom (namely, Christ the Son of God) declareth sufficiently that we can neither satisfy for sin; nor have dominion over it. The force and power of sin is set forth, and amplified exceedingly by these words, 'which gave Himself for our sins'."

......

"Let us learn here of Paul to fully and truly believe that Christ was given, not for feigned sins, nor for small, but for great and huge sins; not for few but for many; not for conquered sins (for no man can overcome the smallest sin to put it away) but for invincible sins."

......

"Hold this fast, and suffer not thyself to be drawn away by any means from this most sweet definition of Christ, which rejoiceth the very angels of heaven: that is to say, that Christ is no Moses, no lawgiver, no tyrant, but a mediator of sins, a free giver of grace, righteousness, and life: who gave Himself not for our merits, righteousness, and godly life, but for our sins.

"These things, as touching the words, we know well enough, and can talk of them. But in practice, and in the conflict, when the Devil goeth about to deface Christ, and to pluck the word of grace out of our hearts, we find that we do not yet know them well and as we should do. He that at such a time of trial could define Christ truly, and could magnify Him and behold Him as his most sweet Saviour, and High Priest, and not as a strait judge, this man hath overcome all evils, and were already in the Kingdom of Heaven. But this to do in the conflict, is of all things most hard. I speak this by experience.

"This, then, is the cause why I do so earnestly call upon you to learn the true and proper definition of Christ out of these words, "which gave Himself for our sins," if He gave Himself to death for our sins, then undoubtedly He is no tyrant, or judge which will condemn us for our sins.

"He is no caster-down of the afflicted, but a raiser-up of those that are fallen, a merciful reliever and comforter of the heavy and broken-hearted. Else would Paul lie in saying 'which gave Himself for our sins'.

"If I define Christ thus, I define Him rightly, and take hold of the true Christ, and possess Him indeed, and here I let pass all curious speculations touching the Divine Majesty, and stay myself in the humanity of Christ, and so I learn truly to know the will of God. Here then is no fear, but all together sweetness, joy, peace of conscience, and such-like. And here withal is a light opened, which showeth me the true knowledge of God, of myself, of all creatures, and of all the iniquity of the Devil's Kingdom."

-Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, Translated by Erasmus Middleton

Mission Complete

I am back from training. It was interesting. That is just about all I can still say without violating the "best construction" principle.

Being in the field with a 115°F heat index... Free
Eating all of the MREs that I could stand... Free
Learning everything that I did not want to know about my job... Free
Laying my hand in a fire ant mound during tactical training... Free
Spending an hour searching the grass for the cell phone that my buddy dropped... Free
Setting up a one man ambush that eliminated a whole enemy squad during night ops... Free

Having enough down time each day to pull these ziplocked books out of my ruck sack for Matins, Sext, Vespers, and Compline... Priceless!

The Diet of Me

RECANTARE!

Lest I be tarred and feathered, I will make a clear statement in defense of my comments regarding Bruce's wonderful and educational book review on his blog.

I am not, and have never been, a hater of The Complete Timotheus Verinus. I love that book. I own it. I have taken it to church and shown it to people. To further prove my loyalty, I will even show you how to go buy one of your very own:

Go here. Search for "The Complete Timotheus Verinus". It is about $38.

Further, I am not, and have never been, a hater of reviews of The Complete Timotheus Verinus. Pietism is an important subject. It is something that we should discuss regularly.

Forgive me for suggesting that new Lutherans read a few other books before jumping into this difficult read. It is not that I think that you should ignore the dangers of Pietism. I just think that, since no one reads anymore, they should make the one or two books about the faith that they do bother to read really count. In my own personal opinion, I value several books above Loescher's great work against pietism. If I was a layman who had no Lutheran books and only $40, I would buy this, or this, or this.

Unfortunately, those three were in my infamous list of "Thirty Books". With regret I admit that there were 27 other books that I personally prefered to Loescher's book. I now reacant that list and will no longer rate books by my personal opinion. I will not rate their value or list them in any order of importance. If asked by new Lutherans, I will provide a general list of books that I recommend--to include the Timotheus Verinus of course--and let them pick which one they want to start with.

If my statements mean that I have trashed the good name of the Timotheus Verinus, then I apologize. That was not my intent. Thank you for pointing out my error, Brother Bruce.

[Note: Hehe... I know that there are humorless Lutherans out there. This is all a in harmless fun of course. :) Bruce makes some great points on his Blog. Go check him out. If this post sends one more person to his posts about pietism, then it will have achieved its purpose.]

Book of Concord

If you do not own a copy of the Book of Concord, get off your lazy rear and go get one. Ignorant Christianity was one of Luther's pet peeves. It is one of mine, too.

Go here. Order a copy and read it. Study it even. This is a valuable resource that you should not cheat yourself out of. Claiming to be a Lutheran is pretty silly if you have no idea what being Lutheran really means. To quote my favorite character from the movie Lilo and Stitch, "Here. Educate yourself."

If you do not own a Bible or a copy of the Book of Concord, you should fix that problem. We are only talking $25. If you cannot afford it, put it on the top of your Christmas list this year and let someone else buy it for you... hey wow... an opportunity to witness your faith... hmm... I wish I had thought of that!

If you own a copy of the Book of Concord, go find somone in your church that does not own a copy and buy it for him. Trust me that will not be hard. Once you both own a copy, start reading it together. He is your brother. Serve him as Christ serves. Love him as Christ loves. You two are each other's responsibility.

Krauth on Unionism

I started enjoying my Halloween treat from CPH over the weekend: The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology by Dr. Charles Porterfield Krauth.

I wish that someone had warned us that this book was such a monstrous tome! I had to get a dolly to wheel it in off of my front porch (...okay, not really but I was sure to lift with my legs when I picked it up.) I am barely through the preface of what the introduction admits is a "mammoth offering".

This Everest is worth the read. The introduction provides samples from his other works which reveal that Dr. Krauth draws from an endless well of thought-provoking insight:

"It is not the division which pains, but their discomfort of it. Sects are sorry, not for the sin [of sectarianism], but for the penalty it brings, and the unionism of the day is trying to escape from God's punishment of the sin of sectarianism without abandoning the sin itself. Unionism does not mean to remove division, but to perpetuate and hallow it." -Dr. Krauth, Religion and Religionisms, p. 237.