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The Sola Scriptura And Its Modem Antithesis, John Theodore Mueller

Concordia Theological Monthly

It is indeed correct to say that the outstanding achievement of Luther's Reformation was the recovery, clarification, and vindication of the sola gratia (sola fide). That truly was a pre-eminent accomplishment, an almost miraculous attainment, as it appears to everyone who considers how thoroughly Rome had succeeded in burying this articulus omnium fundamentalissimus under the rubbish of its extreme work-righteousness program.

The Mystery Of The Trinity, N. Friedmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

"I believe with sincere faith that the Creator-Blessed be His name! - is One and that there is no other unity such as He is." These words, confessed by Jews, form the second of the thirteen articles of faith drawn up by Maimonides for the purpose of combating the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. This article of faith is the chief basis of the obstinate opposition of present-day Jewry to the Christian religion. They assert that believing in a Triune God is the same as believing in polytheism, forbidden by God in the First Commandment. It is our purpose to …

The Right And Wrong Of Private Judgment, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Satan has brought untold woe upon the Church by inducing the Pope to deny the right of private judgment and suppress the exercise of it. And Satan brings additional woe upon the Church by inducing men to turn the God-given right of private judgment into a license to sit in judgment on Holy Scripture, to criticize and discard it. That is our second proposition: There is an exercise of private judgment which God absolutely forbids and condemns.

The Right And Wrong Of Private Judgment, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Ueber die Lehre zu erkennen and zu richten, kommt allen und jeden Christen zu, und zwar so, dass der verflucht ist, der solches Recht um ein Haerlein kraenkt" (Luther XIX:341). The matter of exercising private judgment is of supreme importance. (1) They commit a monstrous crime who keep God's people from dealing directly with God's Word and judging all doctrine on the basis of it. (2) Blessed is the community where the right of private judgment is recognized and practiced.

Intercessory Prayer Its Nature And Efficacy, Robert Hoyer

Bachelor of Divinity

Prayer is one of the less controversial subjects, as far as logical sequence of its presentation is concerned. It has been divided on many fundamenta dividomi, private and public, personal and impersonal, for temporal and spiritual blessings, subjective and objective. For the purposes of this thesis, two of these fundamenta have been adopted; we are to treat of objective personal prayer. This has been given the convenient name: intercessory prayer, from the Latin inter: between, and cedere: to pass. To intercede is defined by Webster: To act between parties with a view to reconcile differences, to make intercession; to beg …

The Right And Wrong Of Private Judgment, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

In his recent book Luther and His Work the Catholic writer Joseph Clayton says: "To this day Martin Luther is praised ... for bringing the gift of private judgment in faith and morals to all believers. On the other hand, among Catholics Luther is held in abhorrence as an apostate monk who drew countless souls into heresy and whole nations into schism; the evil of whose life has lived after him." According to Luther "No one, neither pope nor bishop, has any right to dictate to the individual Christian what he shall or shall not believe. . . The notion …

The Social Ethic Of Martin Luther, Carl Walter Berner

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the present effort to trace the fierce currents of Europe's political ground swells to their source, many writers wish to discover the first rising of the tide in the thought channels of Martin Luther's ideas on religion, politics, and social problems, away back in the sixteenth century. Able thinkers, like McGovern, who have sent their searching gaze into the dim years of history in the hope of discovering the precursors, either men or ideologies, of the present world-wide eruption, have held to a theory of history in which men like Luther are given a lion's share in the responsibility …

Verbal Inspiration- A Stumbling-Block To The Jews And Foolishness To The Greeks, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

We are asked to come in under the charter of liberty proclaimed by the moderns which calls for freedom from "the tyranny of words." We cannot do so, for three reasons.

First, we do not feel that Verbal Inspiration imposes a legalistic yoke on us. It does indeed require of us unquestioning acceptance of all the statements of Scripture. On that we and the moderns are agreed. We are bound by every word of Scripture. But we do not resent, nor rebel against, this bondage. It is a holy bondage. We rejoice in it. Why? Verbal Inspiration has taught us …

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

John Skelton, poet-laureate of Oxford, Cambridge, and Loavain, whom Erasmus called "a light and ornament of British literature" and poet-laureate Southey also praised fabulously, was the most popular and audacious writer of his day. Tutor to Henry VIII, he scored the wicked courtiers. Cleric, he castigated the clergy. "Bestial and untaught men," not able to read or spell their own names, they appoint as priests, preferring habitual drunkards that lead disorderly lives to worthy candidates.

Verbal Inspiration- A Stumbling-Block To The Jews And Foolishness To The Greeks, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Before examining three further objections against Verbal Inspiration, it will be well to pause a while and survey the disaster wrought by the contention of the moderns that the Bible contains a lot of (1) errors, (2) immoralities, and (3) trivialities. Amplifying previous remarks on this subject, we would here present a comprehensive view of the frightful consequences of the denial of Verbal Inspiration. The moderns do untold harm (1) to the Church and (2) to themselves.

All Israel Shall Be Saved, Rom. 11:26, V. Bartling

Concordia Theological Monthly

"All Israel shall be saved." What do these words mean? The sentence must not be isolated from its context and given a meaning which collides with what precedes and follows. Paul's letters have had to submit to torture since Peter's days (2 Pet. 3:16). The history of the interpretation of our particular passage along with its setting illustrates such exegetical torture. Again and again Paul's words have been manhandled and wrested from their context.

Modern Humanism, F. E. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Humanism,'' in the words of Walter Lippmann, "to replace the conception of man as the subject of a heavenly King takes as its dominant pattern the progress of the individual from helpless infancy to self-governing maturity." Modem Humanism has been labeled as scientific or literary or philosophic humanism and more recently as Religious Humanism. Humanism parades under the name of religion and claims to be "a cult or belief calling itself religious but substituting faith in man for faith in God." C. F. Potter, an exponent of so-called Religious Humanism, defines it as "faith in the supreme value and self-perfectibility …

New Validations Of Theism., Theodore Graebner

Concordia Theological Monthly

The age-old problem of the rational proofs for the existence of a God has been given prominence in recent philosophical literature. The subject has long been in abeyance, and, in general, interest in philosophical theism has been on the wane ever since the traditional evidences were subjected to the devastating scrutiny of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Only in Roman Catholic handbooks of systematic theology and of metaphysics the time-honored arguments for the existence of God are submitted as scientifically valid. Revival of interest in the subject is chiefly due to contributions of certain English philosophers to the discussion of …

Luther's Spiritual Martyrdom And Its Appeasement, Theo. Dierks

Concordia Theological Monthly

Luther had entered the monastery in order to merit eternal life and was convinced that the life of a monk was the surest way in which to obtain the grace of God. Now, the way in which Luther sought to gain salvation was according to the Catholic doctrine of justification, with this difference, that as a monk he had taken upon himself the heaviest yoke of Christ and that he had given himself exclusively into the service of God.

The Bible - Is It The Word Of God, Or Does It Merely Contain The Word Of God?, Ed. Koehler

Concordia Theological Monthly

Whether the Bible is the Word of God or whether it merely contains the Word of God has been a matter of controversy ever since higher criticism applied its dissecting-knife to the Sacred Record. While not bold enough to discard the entire Book as a human fabrication, men held that beside some divine truths the Bible contained quite a number of human interpolations and opinions, yea, even myths, fables, errors, and contradictions. Also in our day there are those who will not regard the whole Bible as the authoritative and inerrant Word of God, whose every statement they must accept …

Reason Or Revelation?, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Rationalism is an evil thing, working untold harm. And harmonizing Scripture as practiced by Lutheran theologians is a form of rationalism. The harmonizers operate with the principles of rationalism. True, they do not apply them as widely as the gross rationalists. They restrict the harmonizing operation to selected portions of the Christian doctrine. But there they are engaged in the evil business of rationalism, in a wicked and harmful business.

Reason Or Revelation?, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

There are more rationalists in the churches than go by that name. While the rationalists openly proclaim the sola ratio, the rule of natural reason, others market their wares under an alias. When the experience-theologians operate with the "enlightened reason" and the Roman Catholics make the church, or the Pope, their authority, they make natural reason a source and norm, the source and norm of theology. But that does not tell the whole story. Even among those who loudly proclaim the sola Scriptura there are many who have come under the sway of rationalism.

Lectures On Galatians, Wm. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

That majestic Lord gave Himself when He left His throne of glory in heaven for the lowly manger in Bethlehem in the days of Caesar Augustus, and Quirinius, the governor of Syria, and Herod the Great, the king of Judea.

The Great Reconciliation, E. W. Koehler

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Great Reconciliation is truly the core and center of the entire system of Christian doctrine. All other teachings of the Bible either lead up thereto, or they proceed therefrom. Thus the doctrine of the Law and of sin shows us the need of a reconciliation. The doctrine of grace and of the redemption through Christ shows us how this reconciliation was effected. The doctrine of the means of grace and of faith teaches us how this reconciliation is made known and offered to sinners and how the individual personally apprehends the same. The doctrine of the Church shows that …

Fighting Liberalism With Blunted Weapons, Theo. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Modernists will not like certain sections of this book. The Christian Century says: ''This is a great book, greatly written, and greatly needed. Liberal Christians will find it hard to believe this. They still have in their mouths the bad taste of A Christian Manifesto, which was hailed with glee by the foes of spiritual freedom.

The False Arguments For The Modern Theory Of Open Questions, C. F. Walther, W. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

The assumption of a successive origin of dogmas through so-called decisions of the Church, by which some men seek to uphold the modern theory of open questions, militates, In the second place, against the relationship existing between Scripture and Christian faith.

Holy Scripture Or Christ?, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

In his History of Christian Doctrine G. P. Fisher points out that "among Protestants and Roman Catholics the old question respecting the seat of authority in religion is once more eagerly disputed. Since Coleridge and Schleiermacher insisted that the primary object of faith is not the Bible but Christ, there has been a growing tendency to regard the Scriptures less as an authoritative manual of revealed tenets in theology and morals than as the medium of disclosing to us the personal Christ and the import of His mission and teaching.

The False Arguments For The Modern Theory Of Open Questions, C. F. Walther, W. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the first place, it is not true that our dogmas come into existence gradually and that hence there are articles of faith "which are still in the process of formation, and others which as yet have either not at all or merely by way of beginning been drawn into the stream of events in which dogmas take shape." It is not true that some articles of faith have come down to us "as undecided, unfinished questions, incomplete structures, as open questions," because concerning these things one does not yet find unanimous agreement in the Lutheran Church.

The False Arguments For The Modern Theory Of Open Questions, C. F. Walther, W. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

Johann Gerhard, whose authority is adduced against us, is of the same well-founded opinion [that, while in this life not a higher unity than a fundamental one is possible, errors that arise in a church-body should not be treated with indifference, even if they are of a non-fundamental character]. He writes against the papists, who place unity among the marks of the Church: ''It must be added that unity of faith and doctrine in the Church is not a perfect and absolute one in this life; for at times controversies occur between members of the true Church through which this …

The False Arguments For The Modern Theory Of Open Questions, C. F. Walther, W. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the foreword of the present volume of this journal we stated in which sense one may without hesitation speak of open questions. At the same time we declared that we reject the modern theory of open questions. It appears necessary, however, that we point out how untenable the arguments are which are advanced In support and justification of this theory.

The Principles And Teachings Of The Dialectical Theology, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

The formal principle of the dialectical theology is not that of the Reformation. What about its material principle? The material principle of Lutheran theology is the doctrine of justification through faith, salvation by grace.

Doctrine Of Verbal Inspiration And Its Opponents, Wallace Mclaughlin

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

Scripture as the only current Source and Norm of Christian Truth.

The Principles And Teachings Of The Dialectical Theology, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Enthusiasm in its gross form and Enthusiasm in its dialectical form is on evil thing. It is destructive of all assurance, of the certainty of salvation, and of the certitude of the doctrine. There can be assurance only where the objective character of redemption, the objective character of the means of grace, and the objective validity of the teaching is recognized.

The Principles And Teachings Of The Dialectical Theology, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

The principles ruling the dialectical theology are not those of the Reformation. Brunner repudiates the formal principle of Protestantism, the sola Scriptura. He refuses to accept Scripture as the sole authority, the only source and basis of doctrine. The bare words of Scripture cannot establish a doctrine. “In earlier days this discussion [concerning the Virgin Birth] used to be cut short by saying briefly, ‘It is written'; that is, with the aid of the doctrine of verbal inspiration. To-day we can no longer do this, even if we would." (P. 823.) Brunner is consistent. Since he rejects the real inspiration …

Preaching On The Augsburg Confession, Theo. Laetsch

Concordia Theological Monthly

Preaching on the Augsburg Confession. The four-hundredth anniversary of Luther's Small Catechism, celebrated wherever the name of Luther was known, has undoubtedly been a source of richest blessing. Pastors and people become better acquainted with its history and contents, learned to appreciate this little book the more highly, and thanked God the more sincerely for this precious gift. The sermons preached on the Catechism during 1920 were not in vain, but productive of splendid results, sure as Is.55, 10. 11 still holds good. Let us hope that similar streams of blessing will flow from the celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary· …