Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Confessing Christ, and controversial issues

Luther said it well:
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. (Luther's Works. Weimar Edition. Briefwechsel [Correspondence], vol. 3, pp. 81f.)
(h-t fellow-obsessive ThirstyDavid)

4 comments:

Daniel said...

That is a sweeeeeet quote.

Anonymous said...

That is a nice quote.

I wonder where Luther would have been though when Satan/the world were antisemites, rejected the book of James (and Revelation), and were busy persecuting those evil baptists. My guess is that he would have been hiding in some hole somewhere pretending he was dead.

DJP said...

Maybe. Or maybe he was standing smack in the face of the only "church" in the world, risking his life, telling it that its fundamental convictions were dead wrong, and sounding the note of the gospel of the free, justifying, sola fide grace of God in Christ alone.

If your point is that he was badly flawed, yeah. Find me anyone who doesn't grant that about Luther. Then find me a flawless theologian, so I can only quote him.

Not sure what your point was, but if it was to do an impression of a Roman Catholic trying hard to shrug off the Biblical Gospel because Luther had warts, not bad. Rich Little, beware.

Anonymous said...

eh, I was feeling a bit combative yesterday. It isn't the stand against Rome that I disagree with in regards to Luther. It is where he went from there.