Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

The Right And Wrong Of Private Judgment, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

"O ye theologians, what are you doing? Think ye that it is a trifling matter when the sublime Majesty forbids you to teach things that do not proceed from the mouth of the Lord and are something else than God's Word? It is not a thresher or herdsman who is here speaking" (Luther XIX: 821). When men prefer those things that originate in their own minds to those that proceed out of the mouth of the Lord, they are doing an evil thing. We shall discuss this matter under four heads.

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.

Justification In Article Iii Of The Formula Of Concord, John Meyer

Bachelor of Divinity

The doctrine of justification is the article by which the Church stands or falls. It is, therefore, almost impossible to overstress its importance or to understress the danger of error in this most fundamental of all teachings. And so studying an error in the doctrine of justification is profitable for understanding and appreciating the true doctrine of Scripture in other points as well.

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 …

Luther's Social Ethics In Contrast To Rome's Asceticism, Arnold Wessler

Bachelor of Divinity

"Luther brought back the pure doctrine of justification; that, above all, made him the Reformer of the Church." By carrying out the implications of this Scriptural truth in its relation to the rest of Roman theology Luther once and for all broke the power of the Roman papacy. Other reformers had failed and Luther succeeded in his Reformation because he struck at the root of the problem and undermined the foundations upon which Rome's whole diabolical system of theology rested. Luther succeeded because he destroyed Rome's sacerdotalism and sacramentalism.

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Reformed Abraham Scultetus says in his Annals: "Students from all nations came to Wittenberg to hear Luther and Melanchthon. As they came in sight of the town, they returned thanks to God with clasped hands, for from Wittenberg, as hitherto from Jerusalem, the light of evangelical truth had spread to the uttermost parts of the earth." And so the historian Green calls Wittenberg "the little town which had suddenly become the sacred city of the Reformation."

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

From a small number at the time of William the Conqueror the monasteries had grown to about 1,200 at the Reformation, when they owned from one half to two thirds of the land.

As early as 1410 Parliament demanded their ending; Henry V suppressed over a hundred of them. Popes permitted bishops to suppress some and with the proceeds to build colleges. Henry VII used the monasteries of Mottisford and Luffield to build the chantry and hospital of Windsor.

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 …

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

In 1529 Latimer at Cambridge in his two famous Sermons on the Card urged the universal reading of the Bible. He was opposed by prior John Buckenham in a sermon on Christmas Dice.

On April 3 the Catholics were threatened with Luther and bis followers.

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's Theological Method, W. H. Dau

Concordia Theological Monthly

When Luther began his theological studies at the Augustinian convent in Erfurt in 1505, the teaching of theology in the universities and its practice by the clergy were in a deplorable condition. At that time Luther did not realize this fact, but as he proceeded with his studies, his eyes were opened, and he stood aghast at the havoc that had been wrought on true theology.

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.

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The First English Lutherans and the First English Lutheran Theological Seminary

''Martin Luther" is written over the page with the names of Gardiner, Cranmer, Thirlby, and Bilney, the degree list of Cambridge in 1521.

A committee was sent to London to have Luther's books examined and to get an order from Cardinal Wolsey to burn them - Drs. Humfrey; Robert Ridley, uncle of the martyr; John Watson, praised by Erasmus; and Henry Bullock, a pupil of Erasmus, ''most learned Bovillus," now professor of Greek and vice-chancellor.

The books were burned on Market Hill about the Easter term, and the grand …

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

When the corrupt clergy would do nothing to better the corrupt Church, Luther appealed "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation on the Betterment of the Christian Estate,"' and many hailed him as the desired champion of the nation and shouted Hosannah! Hallelujah! When, however, in the same 1520 he wrote "The Babylonian Captivity of the Church," he published an earthquake and committed the unpardonable sin against the priests, and many cried "Crucify! This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" We are reminded of the account John 6:60, 66: "From that time many of his disciples went …

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Papacy excepted, the empire was the highest honor to which any potentate could aspire. Though little better than an empty title, though scarcely more than the shadow of a great name, destined speedily to become more visionary than ever, its ancient traditions made a deep impression on the romantic heart of the Middle Ages. Its half sacred, half secular dignity, shrouded by a mysterious and unsubstantial grandeur; its position as the military headship and supremacy of Christendom; its imperial bishops and regal princes; its sacred knights and Teutonic brotherhoods; its haunted forests and weird mountains; had all combined to …

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the eighth century the English monk Winfrid came over to preach his Gospel to the Thuringians, was martyred for his pains, and became known to fame as St. Boniface, the Apostle of the Germans.

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

Concordia Theological Monthly

We are asked to give up the doctrine of verbal inspiration because of the alleged erroneousness of the Bible. The moderns are asking us to do that. And our own flesh is suggesting it. We find it impossible to do so. One reason for that is that the arguments advanced by the rationalists against the infallibility of Scripture are in conflict with sound reason. We shall demonstrate this in a later article, and that demonstration will serve a good purpose.

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.

Lectures On Galatians, Wm. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The saving Gospel we have been learning is also the social Gospel we shall be learning.

"Brethren, ye were called unto freedom. Only use not this freedom for an opening of the flesh." Freedom is to be used, not abused for a cloak of wickedness, 1 Pet. 2: 16. A frightful abuse of freedom was that of the Anabaptists at Muenster, in Westphalia, at the time of the Reformation.

Sermones "Dormi Secure", J. H. Fritz

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Of course," says Emerson, "there is a portion of reading quite indispensable to a wise man." If books were not to be read and studied and the information and knowledge contained in them not to be used, there would be no purpose in writing and printing them. Books are the workman's tools. Every minister should have a good working library, a sufficient number of good books.

Lectures On Galatians, Wm. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Christ became a curse for us.

Why do you not jump up quivering from this electric shock?

Christ, the Only-begotten of the Father, in the bosom of the Father from eternity, in the glory of the Father-this majestic Christ became a curse for us.

A startling statement! What is it all about?

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 Significance Of The Doctrine Of The Church And The Ministry, J. Theodore Mueller

Concordia Theological Monthly

Both historically and because of its intrinsic value the doctrine concerning the Church and the ministry deserves continuous and careful study. Briefly expressed, its clear perception by our fathers and the consistent application of it saved the troubled and perplexed band of Saxon pilgrims from utter confusion and in the course of years made our Synod what it is today, a confessional, cohesive, active religious group whose influence upon other church-bodies, above all, on Lutheran church-bodies, has been considerable.

The Doctrine Of Justification According To Gabriel Biel And Johann Von Palz, Theo. Dierks

Concordia Theological Monthly

"To understand Luther's spiritual development presupposes an understanding of what Luther was taught and what he later rejected” writes Dr. E. G. Schwiebert in his Reformation Lectures (a book which should be in every Lutheran pastor's library), and this understanding we have sought to give by these articles treating of the doctrine of justification as it was taught before the Reformation.

The Roman Doctrine Of The Lord's Supper, F. E. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

There are evident traces of Neoplatonism in Roman theology, especially in the doctrines concerning man and the sacraments. The majority of Roman theologians make a careful distinction between the spiritual, as the higher, and the material, as the lower, nature in man. Soul and body belong to two different spheres, the soul being inclined to the spiritual, the body to the sensual, the world of sense.

Luther's Position On The Lord's Supper, H. B. Hemmeter

Concordia Theological Monthly

From times immemorial heirs and beneficiaries have made havoc with the last wills and testaments of their benefactors. They have disquieted and disrupted families which otherwise had been peaceful and loving. And this havoc has often defied amelioration or removal. Even so in the case of our Lord's last will and testament. The Christian Church, the family of the saints on earth, stands before the world rent asunder also by reason of its divergent interpretations of our Lord's testament of love, His last will, in which He has given Himself to His disciples. In the hands of men this testament …

The False Arguments For The Modern Theory Of Open Questions, C. F. Walther, Alex Wm. Guebert

Concordia Theological Monthly

After having shown that the theory of open questions cannot be supported by assuming a gradual growth of dogmas through successive decisions of the Church, we shall prove In the following paragraphs that a doctrine must not first gain a so-called symbolical recognition before it can become a dogma of the Church and must not therefore be placed in the category of open question until such recognition has been achieved.

The Reformed Doctrine Of The Lord's Supper, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

K. Barth said in 1923: "Uncertainty prevails in the Lutheran communion also, and they have Crypto-Calvinists and even Crypto-Zwinglians among them in fairly large numbers - at least in respect of the question of the Lord's Supper." (The Word of God and the Word of Man, p. 260.) Is that true? The Allg. Ev. Luth. Kirchenzeitung wrote April 10, 1931: ''The false teaching of the Lord's Supper, which has split the Church since the days of Marburg, has invaded our Lutheran Church and is today penetrating its innermost circles.

Holy Scripture Or Christ?, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Men are asking us to substitute for the authority of Scripture the authority of Christ or at least to subordinate the former to the latter. If we did that, we would be left without any authority for our teaching and without any foundation for our faith. And that means, of course, that there would be no Christian theology and no Christian religion.

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.